#yayyy woohoo yay

[mxdam]

i'd like to do a fuller revisit of the idea of margarethe as a gothic character! this may be several posts. let's start here:

fairy tales, the female sphere, and female speech

the story of cinderella is a fairy tale in which the wicked stepmother is a narrative force, and not a fully realized character. she exists to provide opposition to the protagonist and be vanquished or overcome in some format, like the evil queen of snow white. "fairy tale" in itself is not a genre that encourages character depth, reflecting its original nature as oral/aural storytelling. insofar as any fairy tale character has real character, or motivation, it is sketched in the most straightforward way, and in the case of all fairy tale antagonists, unsympathetically. but is it possible to have, as they say, sympathy for the devil?

i am not the first person and will certainly not be the last to argue that the position of wicked stepmother in the cinderella fairy tale reflects certain actual patriarchal realities that were a part of women's lives throughout history. in social systems where women were considered, legally, perpetual minors and/or property, were prevented from accumulating wealth or participating in trades or the job market, and could neither inherit nor pass on estates after their death, the stakes were profoundly high when it came to the choice of marriage partners and the actions they took after the loss of a male partner.

the actions of the wicked stepmother become, in that context, understandable. cinderella presents a threat to the social well-being of her own daughters. if she has limited resources (regardless of whether cinderella's father is alive or dead in a given telling of the story, she will always have limited resources as a woman in a patriarchal society), she must exert all of those influences for the promotion and benefit of her own children. insofar as a woman can achieve anything in the world, that achievement is her children; their success, their ennoblement, their social rise. she has no choice, because this is all the power that society and the family will allow her: domestic power, the power of speech, the power of manipulation, the power of familial and domestic cruelty.

in her biography of agrippina minor, roman empress and mother of nero, emma southon quotes tacitus: "influence is rarely lasting, such is its fate." she and tacitus contrast influence with potestas, power, which is meaningful political action. influence is the realm of women; they use it to further the aims of their families, their children, acting from behind the throne and within the domestic sphere. (when nero wanted to sideline his mother, he sent agrippina out of the imperial palace to live in a separate house, and forbade senators and political actors from going there--confining her to a domestic, apolitical sphere, forbidding her from engaging in powerful speech.) maria tatar quotes ursula k. le guin in an interesting parallel in her book on female heroes and fairy tales, the heroine with 1,001 faces, discussing le guin's 1986 speech that describes a Father Tongue, "the voice of power and reason," and a Mother Tongue, "the language of stories, conversation, and relationships." "in this ideological dichotomy, the Mother Tongue is devalued as 'inaccurate, unclear, coarse, limited, trivial, banal."

the intimate connection between womanhood, motherhood, speech, domesticity, powerlessness, and, ultimately, female agency/evil (the same thing under patriarchy) find a conjunction in the figure of the wicked stepmother. in kenneth branagh's rendition of cinderella, on which much of my writing is based, lady tremaine (no first name, by the way--walk-on characters who are present for 15 seconds get first names, but the main antagonist doesn't!) quite literally talks cinderella into self-exile in the attic and self-removal from family togetherness. she never hits her, shoves her, beats her: she simply talks, and her words are enough. the most physical act she takes to confine and harm cinderella is when she locks her into the attic toward the end of the film, at the moment when it seems ella is about to achieve her freedom.

to that end, the cinderella fairy tale viewed from the stepmother's perspective becomes a story about patriarchy. it becomes a story about powerlessness, female dependence, and disenfranchisement under a social system that not only channels women into heterosexual partnership and marriage and requires motherhood of them, but forces them to wield motherhood as power--the only power they will have in a system that demands their exile from the public world of potestas and into the shuttered house. the domestic sphere and its limitations and cruelties, therefore, are hugely significant in the stepmother's story.

what does all of this mean? how does it make the wicked stepmother's story gothic? tune in next time...

[thearchmanofgreenfield]

3 YEARS ON TUMBLR BABY! :D

Damn, i cant believe it already been that long. Thank you all for your support in helping get this far. Honestly, this blog might be small and relatively new, but its still leagues ahead of where I had expected it to end up. And that is all thanks to you folks! If it wasnt for all you, I would never have started They Who Hide Under Top Hats or many of my other works. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart!

Special thanks goes to all my oldest and most surpportive followers/mutuals:

@harleyacoincidence, @autism-purgatory, @rivenantiqnerd, @sm-writes-chaos, @hellothere2009, @drvonchickenstein, @iamstuckinthevoid , @annoying--moth , @scribblesbyb , @my-ants-are-anxious , @blackblooms , @clownpalette , @shin-soumisa , @1-wonder-1, @agirlandherquill , @the-ghost-of-my-will-to-live, @soonamisapphire , @slldom , @cupidsarows , @ladyfoxglove , @ms-macintosh , @bluebirdblunder, @the-darkest-luminosity , @teamwhump , @blue-endy, @runningequalsfood , @go-kasen , @uhnji , @ipcm5 , @mysterious-wizard-hat-emporium , @bluberimufim

...and many, MANY more! (I ran out of time to put them all)

And on a final note. Thank you all for helping me take this blog and They Who Hide Under Top Hats to places far beyond what I ever thought it would go!

Thanks and I shall see you again soon! Cheerio! :D

[askmendaxandfriends]

Blog Rules and Info!

Rainworl askblog thing Idfk i’ve never done this shit before

Rules:

No nsfw please, your ask will be ignored if it has anything to do with nsfw [This includes asking if Midnight (or any other character) has boobs or a big butt. It's just pissing us off at this point]

No gore

Don't explode anyone (or any important celestial bodies/objects), that wouldn't be very nice

Dont be an asshole

Swearing is allowed, but excessive swearing is probably going to be ignored

HOMOPHOBES/TRANSPHOBES DNI FUCK OFF WE DON'T WANT YOU

That's all the rules for now :D

Characters (currently as of 8/14/24):

Mendax

Copycat

Martyr's Devotion

Midnight

Fridge/Frigid

Ever-Moving Shadows

Mad Bomber

Puppeteer

Vantablack

Wolf

sexualities/pronouns or whatever because these bitches be gayyyyyy:

Mendax: non-binary, bisexual. they/it

Fridge/Frigid: non-binary, pansexual, they/he/she

Copycat: Bisexual, they/them

Martyr's Devotion: Non-binary, also bisexual, they/him/she

Midnight: Transfem, she/her

Ever-Moving Shadows: Aroace, he/him

Vantablack: He/him, bisexual

Mad Bomber: ???

Puppeteer: ???

???: Lesbian/lesbacon, she/her

???: Also lesbian, she/her

Wolf: Aroace, he/him

???: Aroace, non-binary, they/it

???: ???

i believe thats everyone. dw about the last five, they're not important right now

FIRST POST FOUND HERE

[trophylover]

ok

[plinktastic]

I've always wanted a bead lizard and now I have one!!!! and i made it!!!! this really is a dream come true! (ignore the part I messed up)

I will try to make bugbo after I answer an ask I've been procrastinating :3

[rirubennii]

hey guys happy new year

new year same me

[technologycrisis]

I love him so mjuch

^ ^ ^ me when vox real <3.3,,33, gnhengmheh,bnn

[toothbeast]

guys I’m suicidal

Cyclothymia check

[minophus]

today i learned: after you beat v2 the first time, she does not disappear. She stays ontop of the arena and bounces up and down quite high. Yayyy woohoo so much fun ! Yay

[biteybeast]

Me living by the blade: lalalala yayyy!!! yay i love this!! woohoo!!

Me dying by the blade: what the fuck.

[thepurringpiper]

GRARRRRVRHDBBFD !!!! yay yay yay yay yayy!!!! Yipee woohoo yayyy

[shovson]

congrast on 500 synth!!!!!!!!! so deserved <33333 woohoo!!!!!!! yayyy!!!!!!! yippeee!!!!!!! can i get a surprise please? (´▽`ʃ💗ƪ)

A YAY YIPPPPEEEE FOR ME!!!!! THATS YAY YIPPPPEEEEEEE THANK YOU GIO!!!!

and of course! here ya go ^_^

[wednesdaythesecond]

Everyone give it up for transgender interracial relationships WHOOOOO WOOHOO YAYYYY YAY HOORAY YAYYY WOOOOOOOO I LOVE TRANSGENDER INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS

[shinarixd]

woohoo werdosona or werdsona yayyy

idk what 2 name him so ill just call him Josh until I find a better name 4 him

Version with actual colors + EYE REVEAL!!! YAY!!!

[sup3rn0v4-mmj]

haruka.

Today is Miku Day woohoo yay!

-@wonderhoycreaturenow

emu.

yayyy!!! happy Miku day ^^

[hairthatcoversyoureyes]

yay i love mituna yayyy woohoo yippieee >_< weeeee!