#vietnamese feminism

[my-vanishing-777]

According to research by Action Aid, the rate of Vietnamese women who have been harassed, from vulgar words to rape, is 87%, a figure even higher than in India, Cambodia and Bangladesh.

[monsveneriss]

Maternite (Motherhood), 1957, by Vu-Cao Dam

[vaugarde]

im not saying diane isnt perfect in earlier seasons (or even the entire show or later seasons) btw like one thing that comes to mind is that her being vietnamese-american is rarely brought up outside of “the dog days are over” even though her gender is constantly brought up because the writers “didnt wanna define her by her race”

[befemininenow]

Your whole world will change when you finally stop hiding.

When looking at some captions, are you amazed at the caption, the picture, or both? Some people like only the pic, but may not resonate with the caption. Others may love the caption, but the picture is sometimes so ill-fitting. When I saw this picture being used in a feminization caption, I felt the former. I didn’t resonate with the caption so much, but I definitely loved the gorgeous woman in the dress.

Although I can’t conform if it’s true due to these image search engines being so flawed at times, it is said that the lovely woman in the picture is Tran Tieu Vy, a Vietnamese beauty pageant winner and model. This picture is a perfect example of a girl crush: not su much because I find her so sexy and pretty, but because of that envy and desire of wanting to be her in that image. From the dress to the hips and beautiful figure, all you can do at times is to just imagine being her. It feels so relaxing, but don’t forget it is still possible to get her features if you start soon, especially if you’re in the younger end.

[leftistfeminista]

A poster of a female cadre photographed by Christian Freund. Source: Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG).

Women’s Liberation

A striking aspect of the popular revolutionary movement in Dhufar was the PFLOAG’s commitment to the liberation of women, a policy that was adopted at the 1968 Hamrin Conference. The PFLOAG believed that the liberation of women was central to the success of the revolution which would not come about automatically but through a sustained struggle against the “objective backwardness” of society.  1 The Dhufar Revolution was influenced by Maoist thought, including on the equality of female cadres, popularised through Mao’s famous declaration that “women can hold up half the sky”.  2 Women’s political participation in the armed struggle alongside men was deemed an important aspect of equality while specific policies were later implemented in the liberated areas to transform the social position of women, such as the banning of female circumcision, polygyny, and the reduction of the bride price after unsuccessful attempts to abolish it completely.

The PFLOAG’s policies remarkably challenged the “unhappy marriage” between feminism and Marxism, as conceptualised by the Western feminist scholar Heidi Hartmann in 1979 – in other words, the tension between women’s liberation and national liberation. 3 The PFLOAG recognised the double oppression faced by women, both in terms of their position as women in relation to men, and in terms of their position as women in relation to the economic system. Attracted to the PFLOAG’s radical position, the Lebanese filmmaker Heiny Srour travelled to Dhufar in 1971, capturing documentary footage of women fighters later used in her 1974 film The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (Saat El Tahrir Dakkat). 4

I was a defeated feminist in Lebanon. The Lebanese Left was not interested in feminist issues and kept closing the subject under various pretexts, one being that the women will be free when the main enemy, Imperialism, is defeated. […] I couldn’t believe my ears when the representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf opened the subject of women from his own initiative and proudly said that the Front was fighting against women’s oppression — because women were not just oppressed by imperialism and class society, but also by their father, husband, brothers. I dropped my other film projects and put all my energy into making this film.  5”

— Heiny Srour on The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived

The campaigns for, and implementation of, the above mentioned policies came through the initiatives of revolutionary women, the Bahraini cadre Laila Fakhro (Huda Salem) for example pushed the PFLOAG to ban female circumcision and limit the bride price. 6 Laila Fakhro also played an important role in the revolution through political education, teaching, care-work, women’s activities, and the PFLOAG’s media and foreign relations. 7 The PFLOAG’s other main periodical, 9 Yunyu (9 June), was a monthly magazine which preceded Sawt al-Thawra’s founding, set up in June 1970 by Laila Fakhro and Abdel Rahman al-Nuaimi (Said Seif). 8

Sawt al-Thawra promoted women’s political participation in armed struggle, drawing parallels to female fighters such as Vietnamese women and thereby placing the PFLOAG’s revolutionary women in the wider tradition of the revolutionary Third World. The periodical highlighted and documented women’s protest, arrests and mistreatment of women and girls by the British-backed regime, and women’s internationalist activities. Women’s representatives and delegations took part in many regional and international conferences, prior to and after the official establishment of the Omani Women’s Organisation in June 1975, a committee headed by Wafa Yasser.

The first official visit by an Omani women’s delegation, comprising Nadia Khaled and Huda Muhad, took place in July 1975 in a symposium on women’s economic development organised by the Soviet Women’s Committee in Alma-Ata, Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. Following this trip to the Soviet Union, the delegation visited the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the invitation of the Women’s Federation of Vietnam. 9 These encounters were important for producing strong ties of solidarity, the exchange of experiences and ideas, and direct engagement with a major source of their own inspiration, the Vietnamese people’s struggle. Most significantly, these material links demonstrate that Dhufar was not a detached revolution in a little-known and distant part of the Gulf, but one that was globally connected and which importantly placed emphasis on women’s political participation.

[thebreakfastgenie]

This is what Vietnam War discourse would actually look like if there was tumblr in the 60s/70s:

That scene in Mad Men where Glenn tells Sally if he doesn't go to Vietnam some poor Black kid will get drafted instead

Draft dodging privilege

Failing the draft board physical on purpose is ableist

Trying to get a psychological deferment is ablesit/sanist

Pretending to be gay to dodge the draft is homophobic

If you're pretending to be gay to dodge the draft you can reclaim slurs

Trigger tags for topics related to Vietnam because it might trigger veterans, people getting screamed at for not using them, discourse about whether they're racist

Can Asian Americans reclaim "Charlie?" (Yes. No. Only if you're Vietnamese. Only if you're literally a member of the Vietcong.)

Lists of celebrities that are canceled for supporting Vietnam ranging from people who actually support the war to people who shared a post about supporting families of POWs

Someone posts about being happy their POW cousin got released, gets anon hate for supporting the war

Excuses not to boycott Dow Chemical, "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism"

Women and people of color get anon hate for talking about misogyny and racism in the anti-war movement

Women shouldn't go to college/law school/med school/grad school because men need those slots so they can get a deferment

The draft proves misandry is real

Anti-electoral leftists opposing the 26th amendment because both sides are the same

"Voting for LBJ is the lesser of two evils!!!!"

"At least Barry Goldwater wanted to end the forever war in Vietnam!"

The students murdered at Kent State get "canceled" for failing some moral purity test

Post about how Jackson State got less attention than Kent State because the students were Black which is actually but in the most bad faith, accusatory tone possible

Feminism and Civil Rights are distractions

Black bloggers get hate for publicly mourning MLK because "thousands are killed in Vietnam every day!!!!"

White American mixes up Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos because they don't know they're three separate countries

Working class people support the war so opposing it is classist actually

"The movement isn't about your fave I hate stan culture!!!!!"

[bongsuvn]

Art by Not A Starchild

HỒ XUÂN HƯƠNG WAS A BISEXUAL?

(Tiếng Việt ở dưới)

Hồ Xuân Hương 胡春香 (1772 – 1822) was one of the greatest poets in Vietnamese history, nicknamed Lady of Nôm Poetry. Most of Hồ Xuân Hương’s works were able to escape the constrained restrictions of traditional literature to reveal her own voice; many called her distinctive language as “serenely profane.” Her poems were famous for their bold sensuality, especially her direct yet flowery depictions of sexual intercourse, completely different from the folk poems of similar motifs by Vietnamese women.

“Congratulations to whoever, skillfully Planted the four posts of the swing, beautifully. Some people climb aboard to swing, while others Are just quiet onlookers, observing and smiling. Curving his knees, the boy arches his back. Twisting her wasp waist, the girl pushes her bosom. Four pink pant-tails are flapping in the wind. Two pairs of jade legs stretch side by side. For these spring games, how many know its true meaning? Once the posts are removed, lie deserted holes!” (The Swing)

However, Hồ Xuân Hương not only liked to describe copulation between men and women, but she also enjoyed detailing the female form through sensuous imagery, as if she herself were being enchanted by her own words.

“My body is both white and round, In water and hills, I now swim, now sink. Whether I be soft or hard, depends on your playful hand, But I still shall keep my true red heart.” (The Floating Cake, Copy of Xuân Hương Poetry version)

“A gorge, a gorge, and yet, the same old gorge. Praise to whoever has gouged out this scene: A lurid red cave with a bushy arch, And rich green boulders covered with algae. Now the stiff wind blows, shaking pine branches. Dewdrops dripping from willow leaves. You who are virtuous, or saintly, who hasn’t tried, Even with weak knees, exhausted feet, to mount it?” (Ode to Ba Dội Gorge, Recorded Collection of National Literature version)

“Summer breeze gently flows from the east, A girl lies to rest but she slips into a deep sleep. Her bamboo comb is loosely attached to her hair, Her pink undergarment drops low on her waist. Virgin dew still veils her two fairy mounts, Water has yet flown through her garden of paradise. Upon noticing, a gentleman hesitates to pass by, Much difficult to leave but troubled if he stays.” (Ode to Sleep, Recorded Collection of National Literature version)

Normally, these poems were analyzed through heteronormative lens, in which Hồ Xuân Hương saw herself as the women in her works, displaying the feminine sexual power under Vietnam’s patriarchal oppression. However, when applying queer theory, these works could be viewed from a different perspective: Hồ Xuân Hương might’ve been writing from the man’s point of view. This was merely a hypothesis, but if the phenomenon of feminized Confucian scholars existed, then there could also exist a masculinized female scholar. Under queer theory, if Hồ Xuân Hương was indeed writing under a male gaze, her works would explode in homoerotic sensuality, particularly of sapphic nature.

Furthermore, Hồ Xuân Hương also had a poem addressed to a woman named Mộng Lan (literally “orchid dream”). There were many theories to explain this work: maybe Mộng Lan was the nickname of a certain man; maybe Mộng Lan was a close friend of hers. But once the poem’s atmosphere was clearly displayed, one could feel the evocation of romance.

“The wind already blows orchid breeze, But the air grows cooler as we meet. The ode to snow continues to echo, My unfinished wine cup still awaits the moon. Chariots, cannons, and horses fight bravely on the chessboard, The instrument strings in twangs and twings, To whoever dreams of my soulmate, Please don’t hesitate to speak.” (To the Flirtatious Lady Mộng Lan, Collection of Unwanted Weed version)

Did the Lady of Nôm Poetry not only write to undermine the Confucian patriarchy, to challenge the oppression of female sexual expression, but also to break the standard of sexuality and gender identity? Could she not only like men, but also women? Could she be bisexual?

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Vietnamese society suffered greatly under the ravaging wars between Cochinchina and Tonkin. While Cochinchina of the south was more relaxed in ideologies, the northern Tonkin was restricted greatly due to Confucianism. According to historian Tạ Chí Đại Trường, due to political and moral suppression, many northern Vietnamese authors would borrow the perspectives and words of women, essentially hiding under a feminine shadow, writing metaphors through another gender. They became known as feminized Confucian scholars. He also noted that many scholars also hid under the pen name of Hồ Xuân Hương.

==================

HỒ XUÂN HƯƠNG LÀ SONG TÍNH LUYẾN ÁI?

Hồ Xuân Hương 胡春香 (1772 – 1822) là một đại thi hào của Việt Nam, được mệnh danh là Bà chúa thơ Nôm 婆主詩喃. Hầu hết thi ca Hồ Xuân Hương theo dòng chảy chung đã thoát được các quan niệm sáng tác cố hữu vốn đề cao niêm luật chặt chẽ để bộc lộ được tiếng nói của thời đại mình; có nhiều người cho rằng đặc sắc của thơ bà là “thanh thanh tục tục 清清俗俗.” Thơ của Hồ Xuân Hương nổi tiếng táo bạo, đầy gợi cảm, đặc biệt là các bài miêu tả giao hợp rất chân thật, bạch hoá tình dục một cách khác hoàn toàn các thơ ca dao cùng mô típ của phụ nữ Việt Nam.

“Bốn cột khen ai khéo khéo trồng, Người thì lên đánh kẻ ngồi trông. Trai co gối hạc khom khom cật, Gái uốn lưng ong ngửa ngửa lòng. Bốn mảnh quần hồng bay phấp phới, Hai hàng chân ngọc duỗi song song. Chơi xuân đã biết xuân chăng tá, Cọc nhổ đi rồi, lỗ bỏ không!” (Đánh đu)

Thế nhưng, Hồ Xuân Hương không chỉ thích miêu tả tình dục giữa trai với gái, mà còn thích diễn tả thân thể phụ nữ một cách mê hoặc gợi tình, như thể bà cũng đang bị từng chữ của mình hấp dẫn vào.

“Thân em vừa trắng lại vừa tròn, Bảy nổi ba chìm mấy nước non. Mềm rắn nhờ tay quân tử vọc, Khăng khăng vẫn giữ tấm lòng son.” (Bánh trôi nước, bản Xuân Hương thi sao 春香詩抄)

“Một đèo một đèo lại một đèo, Khen ai khéo đặt cảnh cheo leo. Cửa son đỏ hoét tùm um móc, Hòn đá xanh rì lún phún rêu. Lắt lẻo cành thông cơn gió thốc, Đầm đìa lá liễu giọt sương gieo. Hiền nhân quân tử ai là chẳng, Mỏi gối chồn chân vẫn muốn trèo.” (Vịnh đèo Ba Dội, bản Quốc văn tùng kí 國文叢記)

“Mùa hè hây hẩy gió nồm đông, Tiên nữ nằm chơi quá giấc nồng. Lược trúc chải cài trên mái tóc, Yếm đào trễ xuống dưới nương long. Ðôi gò Bồng Đảo sương còn ngậm, Một lạch Đào Nguyên suối chửa thông. Quân tử dùng dằng đi chẳng dứt, Đi thì cũng dở ở sao xong.” (Vịnh nằm ngủ, bản Quốc văn tùng kí 國文叢記)

Bình thường thì những câu thơ này đều được phân tích theo định chuẩn hoá dị tính, là bà xem mình trong quan điểm của các cô gái trong thơ, hiển thị sức mạnh tình dục của đàn bà dưới áp chế của phụ hệ. Thế nhưng, nếu ứng dụng thuyết lệch pha, thì có thể xem các loạt thơ này dưới ánh nhìn khác: Hồ Xuân Hương có thể đang viết dưới quan điểm của các quân tử. Đây chỉ là giả thuyết, nhưng nếu đã có hiện tượng nhà Nho lại cái, thì không việc gì cái không thể lại nhà Nho. Nếu đọc các câu thơ dưới thuyết lệch pha, là bà thơ Nôm đang viết dưới ánh nhìn của đàn ông, thì thơ sẽ biểu lộ rạch ròi những miêu tả gợi cảm hướng tới cảm quan đồng tính, cụ thể là đồng tính nữ.

Không chỉ thế, Hồ Xuân Hương còn có một bài thơ gửi một nữ sĩ tên Mộng Lan. Có nhiều thuyết để giải thích thơ: có thể Mộng Lan là biệt danh của một chàng trai nào đó; có thể Mộng Lan là bạn thân thiết của bà. Nhưng nếu diễn lại cảnh trong thơ, thì cũng có thể gợi ra các yếu tố lãng mạn.

“Gió thổi hơi Lan đã mát lừng, Tự nhiên gặp gỡ cũng vì chưng. Câu thơ Vịnh tuyết còn văng vẳng, Chén rượu chờ trăng vẫn ngấn lưng. Cờ muốn thi gan xe pháo mã, Đàn còn lựa gảy tính tình tưng. Nhắn ai mơ kẻ tri âm đó, Xin ngỏ lời ra chớ ngập ngừng.” (Gởi tao nương Mộng Lan 寄騷娘夢蘭, bản Tạp thảo tập 雜草集)

Phải chăng Hồ Xuân Hương đương thời viết thơ không chỉ để đá xéo chế độ phụ hệ Nho giáo, đập tan sự áp bức của chuẩn mực tình dục, mà còn vượt rào tiêu chuẩn của tính dục và giới tính? Phải chăng bà không chỉ thích nam giới, mà còn thích nữ giới? Phải chăng bà là song tính luyến ái?

Vào thế kỉ 17 đến 18, xã hội Việt Nam có nhiều biến động với sự chia cắt Đàng Trong và Đàng Ngoài. Khi Đàng Trong có vẻ phóng khoáng hơn, thì Đàng Ngoài, những Nho sĩ bị cấm đoán nhiều hơn. Theo lí giải của nhà sử học Tạ Chí Đại Trường 謝志大長, chính sự đè nén về chính trị và đạo đức đã khiến một bộ phận tác giả mượn lời người nữ, núp bóng đàn bà, chuyển giới tưởng tượng để thác lời, sáng tác; họ trở thành những nhà Nho lại cái. Ông cũng cho rằng đã có vài Nho gia núp bóng dưới cái tên của Hồ Xuân Hương.

__________ Tham khảo: talawas.org/talaDB/showFile.php?res=10067&rb=0102 thivien.net/Hồ-Xuân-Hương/author-PBy92bBuBMMs53v9tc9E0A tienve.org/home/literature/viewLiterature.do?action=viewArtwork&artworkId=3830

__________ *Định chuẩn hoá dị tính (heteronormativity): niềm tin dị tính xác định qua chuẩn mực hệ nhị phân giới để áp đặt lên lối sống, suy nghĩ, lịch sử, văn hoá của con người lẫn động vật, xem những thứ không chuẩn mực với hệ nhị phân giới là bất thường, không tự nhiên

*Hệ nhị phân giới (gender binary): sự phân loại giới thành hai thái cực đối lập nhau, hoặc là nam, hoặc là nữ, thường theo hệ thống xã hội hoặc theo từng vùng văn hoá

*Thuyết lệch pha (queer theory): một lí thuyết phê bình văn học chuyên quan tâm đến giới tính, tính dục, và tình dục; mục tiêu bao trùm là để giải cấu trúc các chuẩn mực trong xã hội, cụ thể là định chuẩn hoá dị tính, đồng thời điều tra cách thức và lí do chúng ra đời

*Cảm quan đồng tính (homoerotism): nhận thức và cảm nhận hướng tới đồng tính luyến ái

*Đồng tính nữ (lesbian): người phụ nữ bị lôi cuốn trên phương diện tình dục hoặc tình yêu bởi những người phụ nữ khác

*Song tính luyến ái (bisexuality): mối quan hệ hay chỉ sự hấp dẫn tình cảm hoặc tình dục của một người với hai giới tính, nam và nữ, hoặc là nhiều hơn một phái tính hay giới tính

[doberbutts]

So after seeing your post about BES I finally started watching it and damn. DAMN. People saw Mizu and can’t understand why transmascs gravitate to this story???????? I’m pretty sure “using bandages to bind chest” is like one of THE TOP symbolic moves that transmascs gravitate to when it comes to our (admittedly lackluster) representation in media.

Also, I feel like a lot of people get really weird about the idea that a story about empowering women and a story that’s relatable to transmascs aren’t mutually exclusive. I won’t speak for everyone but personally I like stories like this that don’t shy away from representing people whose AGAB doesn’t align with their outward actions.

And! Personally! As a man who is East Asian living in the US and has a higher voice even after 5 years on T, characters like Mizu rekindle my hope that one day I’ll be able to pass as flawlessly as him lol. Characters like Mizu, Mulan, Haruhi (from ouran high school host club) always seem to spark that little bit of hope in me… that maybe one day I won’t have to try so hard to be accepted and people will just see me and assume I’m a boy without me having to correct them… or at the very least, that they’d refrain from using any gendered language towards me until they ask and find out what I want to be referred as.

Oh for sure. It's like the Mulan thing. Like I'm sorry but you put "when will my reflection show who I am inside" and "who is that girl" and "why is my reflection a stranger" and you're mad that trans guys went "wow where'd you get that picture of me" like??? In a deleted scene, Mizu tries to play with her feminity in the mirror at the brothel and ultimately scowls and doesn't like what she sees- and you're trying to tell me that it's *not* supposed to be relateable to trans mascs trying to be feminine women and hating what they see reflected back at them?

Like you said, it's not that I'm mad that this is a story about empowering women and featuring a highly GNC woman as its main character. It's just annoying, and more importantly highly concerning, that people seem to think that because it's about empowering masculine women that trans mascs can't or shouldn't see any of themselves in it. I'm an entire grownass binary trans man and throughout my entire life I have felt more seen and more fellowship with masculine women both fictional and real than I have with anyone else except specific gay cis men who were very gender themselves.

And yeah. As your existence proves, it's not like East Asian trans mascs aren't real??? Like I'm sure there's nuance there that I'm missing because despite being biracial I'm not Asian and *definitely* not Japanese. But acting like characters like Haruhi, or Mizu, or Mulan [Chinese] *can't* be trans mascs because that'a inherently disrespectful to East Asian women is just plain erasing the fact that, um, Japanese and Korean and Chinese and Thai and Vietnamese and more trans mascs absolutely do exist and have existed as long as gender has existed.

[lesbianerin]

i was in prostitution for years and one of the most common fetishes was forced feminization. for men the most humiliating thing they could possibly be is a woman. it’s a humiliation kink.

they would ask me to send them out to get fucked by men for money. because what is a woman? a woman is a hole to be fucked. that was the most humiliating thing they could imagine, being the one that is fucked.

some of them lived their forced feminization fetish full time, they called themselves trans women and truly believed they were women on the inside, while simultaneously getting a boner every time they would get their nails done by underpaid vietnamese women or when they put on the ugliest plastic wigs.

being in the sex industry for years has taught me that cross dressing is a) incredibly common and b) there’s a lot of men who live their fetishes full time.

there’s a reason why so many middle age heterosexual men are coming out as "trans women" now. it’s getting more and more accepted and they’re happy to live their fetish now fully accepted, even being able to claim being a "lesbian" and forcing lesbians to have sex with them, which ultimately affirms their womanhood.

if we don’t stand up against sexually deviant men they’ll take all of our spaces eventually.

[library-fae]

the fact that second wave feminism has been co-opred by transphobic cis white women as a creation made by and for cis white women is so aggravating because second-wave feminism was literally the time when the black panthers were advocating for black and brown people (including women) and their rights, the stonewall riots that was led by black and brown trans women, books on support of abortion rights, pioneered by black intersectional feminist florence rae kennedy, the indochinese women's conferences from 1971 fronted by women of colour, especially vietnamese women...

everything angela davis, audre lorde, winona laduke, chela sandoval, anna nietogomez and kimberly crenshaw did... and that's just the people we are most aware of

im so tired of history being gentrified, whitewashed, colonised and the removal queer people and people of colour from our past

[hetadoujinarchive]

“Siamo Felici”

Main Characters: Germany, Italy

Minor Characters: Hungary, Austria

Pages: 24

Vibes: comedy

Translated by: ???

Summary: Hungary convinces Germany to marry Italy

CW: there’s some passionate kissing, nothing beyond that, and there used to be two images of Italy being naked (only top-half shown) but I have censored it so you’re all good. as you can see from the cover, Italy is also forced to wear a dress so there’s some feminization and Hungary being a fetishizer...

Other languages: Russia/по-русски, Finnish/Suomen, Vietnamese/Tiếng Việt, Thai/ภาษาไทย

[aesrexic]

𝓭𝓪𝔂 153 𝓸𝓯 2024: jogging, pilates, etc.

I have three days left til I have to go back to work, so I figured why not exercise the days I have left?

sky looks nice

It's been a month since I did pilates, and it's my third day of going back to running. One thing I noticed compared to my previous running patterns was that I was able to break my records in running since I've been running faster. I also don't feel fatigued after a run. I've searched lots of posts on reddit to see if there were people with similar experiences, and turns out there are a lot of people who noticed that running seemed easier while doing pilates. That's nice. Seeing these posts makes me want to continue doing this. I don't have to study anymore for the NMAT so a brick has been lifted off my chest. My calves and thighs have also stopped hurting after running, which was a problem for me during my second day of running in my previous cardio attempts but now I don't feel pain anywhere at all.

Nothing in my diet has been significantly changed, but I've been sleeping better too. I go to bed at 20:00 and I wake up at 3 or 4, then I spend the rest of my time in social media and games. I should go back to painting.

My initial aim for this healthy lifestyle was simply to lose weight for my boyfriend since he's going back home this August or September, but exercising has made me want the rest of my life to focus on holistic development. It has also been forever since I last had emotional breakdowns, and my body doesn't seem too fatigued anymore even when I don't drink coffee (tho I still do drink now, as a pre-workout).

Current fixations:

-æspa

-feminism

-wholesome-core videos

Meals:

-spanish bread & homemade vietnamese iced coffee

[orangepeelshortbreadcookies]

I really like the Barbie movie. Honestly, I do. But holy shit is it obvious it was written by a cis-white woman.

One symptom of this movie's white feminism leaking through to me is that joke at Gloria's husband attempt to learn Spanish, which just comes off mean-spirited to me. Why would you mock something that wholesome? Ffs the man wants to better his communication with his wife and child. Wouldn't catch me out here shaming my partner for trying to learn Vietnamese. More importantly, aside from that joke, Gloria and Sasha just sound like two whitest women you can think of. How is that the only signifier of their cultural identity?

Also doesn't the existence of the patriarchy rely on the grounds that men have always had power and women exist as an afterthought and have to depend on its benevolence? By that logic, isn't the Barbies the patriarchy in Barbieland? Barbies are the ones who have jobs, who are in high offices, who own properties. The Kens are assigned as Barbies' accessories, they don't own houses, because every house is Barbie's dreamhouse, they have no executive power, they have to rely and compete for scraps of Barbies' affections. If anything, the Kens ARE the marginalised, powerless group in this world. They have more in common with real-life women than the Barbies, including the fact that the Barbies are diversely cast but the Kens only consist of one allowed body type. And even as I like the deconstruction of a redpilled Ken, does it really work when the character never really have a perceived entitlement, fed to him by society in the first place? Like, Gerwig tried to describe the Kentakeover as evil, monstrous brainwashing with the worst symptoms of toxic masculinity and needs to be shut down, which feels too much of an easy way out for me, when it could have been that Ken found political-conciousness in the real world, reinterpreted it and used it to help fellow Kens gain more equality in Barbieland. Would have been wayy more interesting if that line about him thinking the patriarchy is about horses have been taken more seriously imo. Instead they framed it in this milquetoast take that's really fucking stagnant when you put it in context: The Kens can rebel, yes, but not too much, not too confrontational of the system, they can't demand substantial change in it, because then they would just take over it and it will be baaad. That depogramming speech Gloria gave the Barbies would have applied much better with the Kens in the context of their world. Yeah, you can argue that "But isn't that like how women are in the real world?" And yes, the movie acknowledged it in like one line, and it doesn't make its avoidance of criticisms on capitalism and needs for change in the system any less shallow, does it? And also the motivation for Ken's rebellion is just that he's an incel. Like, I like that Ryan Ken and Margot Barbie reconcile and address their failings at the end, and that Barbie acknowledges that she has been a pretty shitty friend to him. But the rest still rings very hollow.

[josiebelladonna]

hm. well, let’s see…

-my fics got more autobiographical while fusing worlds of fantasy, i.e., wrote/began writing some of my best work while saturn was in aqua

-my art got a lot honest, too. part of it being i’m working mostly by hand rather than digitization: i still do digital art but i’m having to be wise about it with the rise of ai and everything

-two very sexy men named joey and alex (joey at 0° degrees aquarius, alex at 4°)

-befriended amazing people

-started vocalizing more questions

-started “seeing things as they are”, i.e., people who are all talk and no walk, “fake it til you make it” is bullshit always has been and always will be, and things that are too good to be true, but also good people coming from all walks of life and small miracles in the strangest of places like bowls of soup or the twinkle in alex’s eyes or the way a cloud looks

-started standing up for things i believe in (supporting art and artists, supporting science at its root, taking care of your body, lgbtq+ rights and all things pertaining to sexuality, supporting people from different backgrounds, supporting men as well as women because there’s way too much cartoon “feminism” that’s just an excuse for people to be dickheads to boys and men while acting like girls and women are perfect in every way)

-started becoming really bored and disenchanted with “rockism” and i began paying more attention to smaller acts, weirder shit, and different genres without being all like “why isn’t this more popular?” out the gate in junction with the basic stuff because it’s buried in the same way diamonds are buried

-realized that i’m only a small part of an even bigger thing

-animals began warming up to me more (they always have but it was especially the case then; lots of cats and dogs, but also lots of birds, reptiles, horses, fish, billy goats, deer, elk, and even a couple of foxes?)

-gained 40+ pounds as of my writing this (30 in 2021, 17 last year, and i lost a couple so far this year: 40 pounds is still 40 pounds, and i can barely see my toes anymore when i look down 😅) and figured that it’s actually been a lifelong dream of mine to be very chubby, like i’ve always felt it in hindsight, from looking at my belly in the mirror and wishing it was fat to wanting dessert in a restaurant when my parents refused it. but i also want to stay healthy, like… i like wendy’s, arby’s, dairy queen, jersey mike’s, jack in the box, dutch bros., chili’s, el pollo loco, in n’ out, and outback steakhouse as much as the next fat girl but i actually prefer eating at home, and i eat mainly whole food at that, too—i like foreign food, too, mainly your asian stuff like japanese and vietnamese food. i’ve repressed a lot of desire out of fear of being judged for my weight (pluto is going to make me extra chubby? i’m kinda down 😆😋)

-shit got really erotic with me, like… more so than when saturn was in capricorn because it was all me in aquarius

-with my weight gain, i’ve grown very strong, like i don’t think i would have been able to shovel a pathway through 2-foot snow drifts for my mom, my dog, and myself without having this big, round “mountaineer woman” belly on me. i’m also way more flexible than i was in high school, too (i do miss riding my bike from home to the cafe nearby for coffee and pie, though)

-i’ve grown very disillusioned and displeased with mainstream culture, be it on tv or the internet, and i’ve just decided to go with my heart and what i like and i don’t care if i’m alone in it, too

-my intuition got absurdly sharp during that transit, too, like things would manifest to me after i talked about it in throwaway fashion or thought about it in fleeting detail

-been traveling a lot, usually to the beach or down to l.a., or even just doing “common people” type stuff like going to the movies or to a nice restaurant

-returned to things i loved as a kid that i sort of had to give up during my teen years like meteorology and comics and cartoons i grew up watching and horror and eating whatever i feel like (i had one of those little pies you get at walmart, blueberry of course + a piece of cake the other day: 8 year old me was in bliss!)

-discovered my heritage after not really knowing my whole life (i’m two parts latin, two parts from the british isles, one part scandinavian, and a tablespoon of baltic states: i always thought i was native american and german)

-my mom’s got saturn in aquarius, too, and during her own return, she picked up more hobbies like those diamond paintings, legos, and sewing (she and i are also big on funko pops, rocks, gardening, and books)

-she and i also got into a discussion about dreams in life a couple of times during that transit, how i want to make a comic book someday and go back into ceramics and art glass and working with my hands, while she wants to write and publish a novel and get more into carpentry

-problems with the house came up, too, like my stepdad dying and ownership of the house going into limbo, the septic backing up, the place being ungodly cold in the winter and hotter than holy fuck in the summer, and recently, losing the internet for four days

-saw a lot of weather during that transit, too, like… california is pretty much known for having nice day after nice day after nice day after nice day to the point of monotony, but i saw… snowstorms, the thickest fog i’ve ever seen, the brightest rainbows i’ve ever seen, awful heat waves, monsoon flows, hail, a couple of bomb cyclones, floods, hydrological outlooks, sleet, a shitload of rain, stupidly high winds, whatever tf was happening last spring when i didn’t put my winter clothes and warm blankets away until the end of june, snow up to my hip, the place actually looking like anchorage alaska at one point, and even funnel clouds

-the big thing is “acab” (all cops are bastards)… you know what’s really weird is i actually met a lot of cool cops during that transit, guys who were really good guys, like they were actually doing justice in front of me, a heavyset woman of mixed race. social justice should never be trendy, either: you stand for something because it feels right to you, not because it’s expected of you.

-i’ve also always known the power of lurking, just observing behavior, but saturn in aquarius really made me love doing that. there’s so much power in just watching people and seeing how they behave, especially when they think you aren’t around.

i should also mention that saturn was in my 8th house and conjunct my moon at one point, and i had my saturn return last month on the 17th, too! those transits get way too of a bad wrap, imo: questioning my sexuality and gender to the point of feeling overwhelmed and completely lost aside, saturn in the 8th is actually pretty cool at some points—in some cases, fun. and the saturn return can actually be the best thing to happen to you, too. saturn on the moon was kind of tough, though, like i often felt really robotic during that.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

[VIE] Công chúa Gotham

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ENtlTm8 by elicpwze "Jeez, mấy tờ tạp chí này có vẻ thích quên mất là em có tồn tại ghê," Có lần Dick nói, thả người trên chiếc ghế trước Batcomputer, đôi chân vung vẩy khi lật giở từng trang tờ Time. "Trang nào trang nấy đều là về Bruce Wayne, Hoàng tử Gotham, chẳng hề đề cập đến một lần về Dick Grayson, người được bảo trợ, bạn cùng phòng và người bồ tèo thân thiết nhất của anh ấy." Cậu nói, nghịch ngợm thổi kẹo cao su. "Mà thôi, đoán là cũng có lý. Kiểu nếu họ mà nói về em thì thể nào cũng sẽ phải tìm một biệt danh hay ho để gọi, mà nhìn chung là chả có cái nào nghe hợp lí hết. Ý là nếu anh là Hoàng tử Gotham rồi, thì em sẽ là cái gì? Công chúa của anh à?" Cậu mười bốn tuổi, đó là một câu đùa. Cậu chưa từng nghĩ đến luồng điện kỳ lạ mà những từ ngữ ấy truyền qua cơ thể, chưa từng chuẩn bị cho việc nó khiến cậu muốn vặn vẹo.   Hoặc: năm lần Dick Grayson được gọi là công chúa, và một lần nó thực sự có ý đó. Words: 6366, Chapters: 1/1, Language: Tiếng Việt Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson Relationships: Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Feminization, of a sort, princess kink, is that a thing? i guess im making it one, Frottage, Porn With Plot, Masturbation, Translation, Translation in Vietnamese read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ENtlTm8

[isabellarosestudio6]

Week 4: Research

Nam June Paik

'Nixon,' 1965, video installation

"This video installation draws upon the most significant television images of Richard Nixon’s presidency up to his resignation speech following the Watergate scandal in 1974. Paik began to use circular magnetic coils to subvert broadcast material in 1965. He often chose politicians as the subjects of his distortions, as a form of visual satire that worked on multiple levels: both against the figures of authority seen on the screen and against the manipulative nature of mass media images."

- https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/paik-nixon-t14339

TEXT: Mellencamp, P. (1995). The old and the new: Nam June Paik. Art Journal, 54(4), 41-47.

Martha Rosler

Photomontages & Photo Series:

Bringing the War Home

"Appropriating elements of pop culture in her work, such as television and magazine advertising, Rosler produced a now well-known set of photomontages, in which she collages magazine photography with depictions of ideal homes, producing a single incongruous frame as a way of highlighting the false disconnection between these two public discourses. In House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home, c.1967–72, for instance, a series produced at the peak of the Vietnam War, Rosler combined images of Vietnamese civilians and US soldiers with those of pristine dwellings. Remaining outside of the art context, Rosler distributed photocopies of these works among the anti-war community and published them in ‘underground’ periodicals."

Body Beautiful or Beauty Knows No Pain

"In the series Body Beautiful, or Beauty Knows No Pain, made between 1966 and 1972, Rosler deconstructs representations of women in mass circulation magazines. In the works in this series Cold Meat I, Cold Meat II, Hot Meat and Damp Meat, parts of women’s torsos are merged with kitchen appliances, placing the commodified female flesh within the arena of food preparation and consumption. Similarly, in Pop Art, or Wallpaper parts of a female body from a Playboy magazine centrefold become a patterned wallpaper and are systematically arranged, grid-like, on a wood-grain surface. In Woman with Vacuum (Vacuuming Pop Art) Martha Rosler addresses the marginalisation of women in pop art. The work features a well-groomed woman vacuuming a corridor filled with well-known pop art works by male artists – for instance a work by Tom Wesselman. The vacuuming woman is smiling, as if resigned to her invisibility and subservient role within the dominant patriarchal discourse."

Place of the Public: Airport Series

"Rosler also looks at the role of the flight passengers, the economics of flying and the strategies adopted by airlines. The sentences draw attention to the ways in which airport advertising, signage and architecture promise to take the visitor elsewhere, mentally and physically. "

"These photographs, accumulated over a long period of time, were taken in transit to inviting institutions, beginning in 1983. Rosler became part of a traveling class which, in the 1980s, was out of the reach of most commuters or tourists. The images are accompanied by text printed in vinyl letters and based on the functional tone of directions, dos, and don’ts, designed for transfer and border zones. "

- Tate & Martha Rosler Website

Observations:

- interest in the tactics and psychology of media advertising

- interrogating public narrative, as influenced by media

- juxtaposition & subversion

- found materials from common media and mundane everyday photographic style.

- patriarchy, feminism, the home, woman's work, stereotypes

- pop culture & current events. Pop-art influences.