#yeah the feminism was kind of surface level but the people who made it never once claimed the message or rhetoric was never before done

[nct127s]

the switch up on barbie is so strange to me, the same people who were all going to the cinema to see it & proclaiming it film of the year are now all the same people slating it

[gacha-incels]

Been boycotting limbus but it's a bit disheartening seeing everyone continue around me with this passing intl women's day. I don't know how to convince my friends to stop without getting into an argument because they're all knee deep into these games. But my real question was.. why? These people are boycotting other products for other things, why are they so adamant with sticking on this when it's proven to have harmed so many people in the small team that made it?

Had a discussion with one who is boycotting and I feel like that "political correctness" seeps into the themes of the game, actually, despite how people tout it as the ultimate anti capitalist game; The City is suffering, workers gruel and die at the whims of corporate overlords, people struggle to find housing, and whatever the fuck Carmen's doing in the light, while it could help people survive longer, is just giving everyone guns ignoring the power structures underneath. It's very strange to me now there's.. no suggestion of uprooting the system at all in the games. No true strikes or protests or even any mentions of unions as far as I know. There's no effort to change what is given

[outside of the seed of light project, which 1. famously Didn't Work and 2. having everyone manifest ego is still just giving everyone guns and going "now don't shoot each other!"],

which is very strange and kind of sad? Like sure maybe an arbiter or something would come and tear it down but surely people would come up with countermeasures? People are really good at adapting around things out of desperation, and surely at least an effort would be mentioned

And then my friend, she suggested something; without project moon's suffering, there would be no project moon. Without the city, project moon can't make games. To end the hell that the characters are in and truly resolve the city's hypercapitalist dystopia, they must stop making money off of them. But they don't want to. They definitely DO want to make more games, noted by the interviews which mention future game concepts such as the distortion detective visual novel. But in order to do so, they must keep the current games "clean" and consistent in their suffering to perpetuate conflict. There is some commentary about capitalism to be had; but it feels more like a "oh, look, people are dying, this is so sad" layer of paint on it at this point rather than something more in depth and meaningful. And I think in enforcing this sort of "we can't fix the system in any meaningful way, let's just live our lives instead and hope something better happens" mindset, it reflects into the players. Kind of ironic how the anti capitalism game must sustain its own horrible systems internally so the owners of the series can: make more money through a very predatory money making system, no less!

Limbus fans don't give a fuck about feminism in kr, they think its a system they cant help fixing so they just play the game as they please and any attempt to disuade them is met with a "stop ruining my fun!!" And "who cares?" The worst ones are the ones who KNOW their money is being funneled into stupid misogynistic shit but don't care! It's insane! I've never seen this level of apathy towards a serious issue before!

Sigh. I hope this ramble is coherent. If I missed talking about something or if you want me to talk more I'm game. Project moon's characters are some of my favorites but you have to admit the themes are surface level shit at some point, especially in later installments of their games. So tired but I'd figure I'd share my thoughts somehow. Take care account admin, youre doing gods work

yeah regarding your first point about fans that keep playing, back in August there was a discussion on this blog here regarding contemporary fandom “culture”- how it makes dropping a piece of media hard for some people and why they feel so quick to defend it. the nature of gacha is also that it gets you into the habit of doing “dailies” which makes them harder to drop, this is not even mentioning sunk cost fallacy. I’ve seen a recent post on the FGO subreddit asking why people still play the game and the top posts by a longshot were ones saying only because they spent so much time and money on it. For a lot of people (even people who think themselves progressives) misogyny is a non-issue as well so they will not take the situation in South Korea that seriously to begin with. This is in addition to it happening to “other” or “foreign” women in the eyes of the western fan. There is also an aggressive “fuck you, I’ve got mine” attitude some of the fans who want to keep playing have in regards to these women. It’s disturbing to watch happen but unfortunately not uncommon. I find some of the worst of it, in this situation specifically, is when westerners try to tell Korean women (who are boycotting and spreading information) that they are the ones spreading misinfo, or there’s no reason for them to boycott, how it’s not that bad for them, how PM actually didn’t do anything wrong, “both sides” are crazy and wrong, “let people enjoy things”, shit like that. like doesn’t it raise any flags for you that the people most affected by PM’s actions, Korean women, deleted entire accounts of fanart, took back fanmade items from PM’s cafe, started a boycott of LC and made posts in english to try and get the word out to international fans? you must think they’re idiots if you believe this is all some misunderstanding and vellmori quit of her own free will. Come on. imo it’s impossible to make any meaningful statement critiquing capitalism when you’re writing it in a game that uses one of the most exploitive types of gambling mechanics. I hope I don’t have to explain to anyone why this is absurd. You don’t need to expose young people to gambling addictions in order to fund new games. At the same time, things an author writes (or things that the reader infers from the writing) do not always reflect their ideologies or actions in real life and they can sometimes seemingly be at odds with one another. This is something fans have to reckon with, and not just by saying “actually hatsune miku made limbus company” or whatever. Personally, I can’t take PM’s “anti capitalist” or “feminist” or “revolutionary” work seriously when in reality they have mistreated employees, sued labor unions, acquiesced to incel demands and then later added a meme into the game from that incel community. On the other hand people struggle to believe Project Moon could do anything wrong like this because of the stories in their games so they vehemently defend PM, which at some point just feels naïve. well hopefully this is the type of answer/discussion you were looking for lol thanks for writing 👍

[adamsvanrhijn]

Anne was gnc but she also wanted to be accepted socially by more upper class people than herself and yes to do that she would have to conform more than she probably wanted to, and even if she didn’t care about being accepted by upper class people, she still would have had virtually no choice in the matter of femininity anyway. Women were simply not allowed to be masculine. The fact that anne lister lived as gender non conforming as she did is extraordinary

Anyway rip Anne lister you would’ve loved trousers

(Expecting these are from the same person... whoops if not) (Also I can't tell if you are trying to provide a different perspective than mine or not but ultimately my take is that if something like that made a woman miserable we shouldn't be praising it so unreservedly; the whole idea of right and wrong ways of being gender non-conforming as cox is presenting it is just so narrow and ignorant)

Yeah I mean I think one of the more painful things about the video for me was Cox using the IRL and fictional representation of Lister (actually iirc there was very little discussion of IRL Lister) as opposition to fictional Jo March in Little Women (2019) ... which is NOT a movie I enjoy and I wasn't on board with their Jo, and several of my issues with it ARE costuming related.... but like, Jo also wears dresses to dances and (barring That One Scene) in public with people who aren't her family and wears blouses and skirts in a way that is a bit more """"masculine"" (I hesitate to say this bc that was a very common combo in fashion for women but I think that was kind of the intent of the costuming with separates) and Abby criticized the hell out of this in a way that, although she's huge on the corset thing (and apparently completely ignorant of 19th century American dress reform, which although it isn't necessarily depicted in Little Women was something that appealed to Louisa May Alcott, which is a very very very specific motivation for how the movie was done....) seemed ultimately knee jerk based on her wearing trousers and finding that liberating without any respect for what the production was trying to do specifically regarding gender non-conforming women. Like this is also an adaptation where Jo's marriage isn't confirmed. These were intentional choices for a very specific reason that she spends the whole video dismissing.

Her whole idea struck me as "if you MUST be gender non-conforming, at least be as respectable as possible about it 🙄 real women never complained or were dissatisfied with their clothing, and nobody wanted to wear less restrictive clothing and/or trousers 🙄 and if they were interested, they'd be arrested, like these outliers! but nobody who was a real woman was interested in this and they knew to be taken seriously they had to be REAL women, so i am also blaming gender non conforming women for setting back feminism and preventing women's suffrage before everybody got with the program and dressed nice🙄 "

literally like if someone were to say "gay people didn't even want to get married before it was legal! we know this because very few gay people were getting married illegally, and those that did were silly people with unrealistic and uncommon wants and interests who nobody took seriously or respected anyway."

that is the sort of thesis she is hinging her historical analysis on in that video. and i saw people say e.g. "oh well it IS documented that suffragists wore nice feminine clothing because they wouldn't be taken seriously otherwise" like yeah it very much is! but like that is NOT the point, the point is WHY they wouldn't be taken seriously, and how that affected women at the time, and also, by ignorance and by discussing it only at the surface level, her takes on it appear to validate prejudiced, classist and racist positions within the suffrage movement that were extremely restrictive in what kind of women should be allowed to vote and what kind of women deserved to be taken seriously.

for the most part her video also doesn't discuss class or occupation at all which is a huge miss to me as i think nuanced discussion of that would not support her thesis as argued.

[saltpepperbeard]

Why do so many people think that katniss didn’t want romance??? The amount of notes on that post you just reblogged is depressing. People think she just wanted to be alone and depressed in her house forever? That’s what these readers wanted for her? I don’t think they think through the whole “badass independent female character who doesn’t want romance” thing, because almost no one wants to be alone forever. That’s not a thing that makes most people happy, that’s not feminism

“Sorry for the rant” M’DARLIN’ LOL. WHEN I TELL YOU I WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU POP INTO MY ASKBOX WITH THIS. AND DO YOU REALLY NOT EXPECT ME TO RANT BACK LMAO? Like I was replying to the first part, and saw that there was more and was like...HELL YEAH ANON GO OFF??? LET’S DO THIS??????

Because yeah, both of those mindsets are completely, completely wild to me. And I’ve seen them both pop up with an alarming frequency.

I think the whole “Katniss shouldn’t have ended up with anyone” argument stems from like the whole, “She’s a strong independent woman who don’t need no man” kind of thing. Like, people are sick and tired of stronger women characters ending up with a guy at the end. But like...What you said, what’s wrong with that? Why is romance such a bad thing? Does it somehow make her weaker, being a regular human with wants and needs? Does comfortably spending the rest of her live with someone somehow subtract from her character?

Like, last time I checked, Katniss is still very much who she is, aka a strong-willed, courageous, mature, well-spoken, wise beyond her years young woman, WHILE STILL HAVING LOVE AND COMFORT IN HER LIFE.

And lmao anon, didn’t the MJ2 filmmakers subtract the romance from the film though with similar logic? Like they thought it would “detract” from a war movie or what not. And I’m like jfklsjdkslds WHY. W H Y. IT IS AN INTENSE, BEAUTIFUL PART OF BEING A HUMAN BEING LMAO. WHY ARE HAPPY ENDINGS SUDDENLY BECOMING SO FREAKING TABOO.

Also, omfg, do not even get me started on the Peeta logic lol. The whole “placed with Peeta at the end” lmao. SETTLED to be with Peeta at the end. NEVER wanted to be with Peeta/didn’t actually love him.

...

Hello, hi, how are you. Did we read the same books. Like, are we sure. Are we SURE. I’m all for different interpretations and people headcanoning this, that, and the other. But when something is blatantly stated multiple times throughout an ENTIRE series, and people try to attack others for it/downplay what’s there? *X SOUND EFFECT*

Liiikkkeee let’s just dabble in this a bit shall we *Licks pages from all three books as I open them simultaneously lmao* ~

“And then he gives me a smile so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness that unexpected warmth rushes through me.” -THG pg 72. Gotta start that warmth early.

“Because if he dies, I’ll never go home, not really.” -THG pg 343. CAN’T GO HOME IF YOUR HOME DIES.

“I realize only one person will be damaged beyond repair if Peeta dies. Me.” -CF pg 352. Again, case in point.

“Peeta. Alive and well, well, maybe not well but alive and here. Away from Snow. Safe. Here. With me. In a minute I can touch him. See his smile. Hear his laugh. I’m lightheaded with giddiness. What will I say? Oh, who cares what I say? Peeta will be ecstatic no matter what I do. He’ll probably be kissing me anyway. I wonder if it will feel like those kisses on the beach in the arena, the ones I haven’t dared let myself consider until this moment.” MJ pg 175. She’s literally beside herself at the notion of seeing him again. And is thinking about arousing-level kisses? GIRL, PLEASE. But you know it’s fine, she doesn’t feel a thing for him l m a o.

Alsoooo CHECK THESE PARALLELS? First of all, her arousal/want towards him appears in all three books-

“This is the first kiss where I actually feel stirring inside my chest. Warm and curious. This is the first kiss that makes me want another.” -THG pg 298.

“I feel that thing again. The thing I only felt once before. In the cave last year, when I was trying to get Haymitch to send us food. I kissed Peeta about a thousand times during those Games and after. But there was only one kiss that made me feel something stir deep inside. Only one that made me want more.” -CF pg 352.

“The sensation inside me grows warmer and spreads out from my chest, down through my body, out along my arms and legs, to the tips of my being. Instead of satisfying me,  the kisses have the opposite effect, of making my need greater. I thought I was something of an expect on hunger, but this is an entirely new kind.” -CF pg 353.

“Peeta and I grow back together. There are still moments where he clutches the back of a chair and hangs on until the flashbacks are over. I wake screaming from nightmares of mutts and lost children. But his arms are there to comfort me. And eventually his lips. On the night I feel that thing again, the hunger that overtook me on the beach, I knew this would have happened anyway.” - MJ pg 388.

For all of you watching at home, SEX LOL. KATNISS IS AROUSED BY PEETA, Y’ALL. NUMEROUS TIMES. K GLAD WE CLEARED THAT UP.

And then the dandelion/hope motif appears at the beginning and at the end. So SC introduced her relationship with Peeta, and brought it all the way around to a close at the end.

“To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me that I was not doomed.” -THG pg 32.

“That what I need to survive is not Gale’s fire, kindled with rage and hatred. I have plenty of fire myself. What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That is can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that.” -MJ pg 388.

So no, it didn’t just appear out of the blue. No, she didn’t just settle for him. No, she didn’t just end up with him because it was most convenient. And these quotes barely even scratch the surface. There is a PLETHORA of little moments/asides she has through every book when it comes to Peeta. Everything from describing his appearance in detail, to how he makes her feel, to his likes/dislikes. And of course, the perfect little string to tie everything up with-

“So after, when he whispers, ‘You love me, real or not real?’ I tell him, ‘Real.’“ -MJ pg 388.

[ununniliad]

Return of Just Another Multi-Writer Cascade That Will Probably Never Have an Ending.GEKIJOBAN: "Friendgame"

The cover is a lovingly hand-painted portrait of Net.Access punching LAN.os right in the face.

----

A universe, not of hard and unyielding matter and energy, but of connection, affinity, the fundamental forces that bind people together - the Friend Zone!

And within that universe - the planet known as Rostir, home of the ghosts of millions of never-realized characters! And home to something else! Home of one of Looniverse-20's most powerful artifacts - an Absurdity Stone! In specific, guarded here is the soul of the Absurdity Stones, the mytheopeic center of everything that is the superhero genre - the Characterization Stone!

And upon that planet's misty magenta fields, beneath its violet sky with its soft robin's-egg clouds, lands the ship of - LAN.os!

The insipid purple man, fedora on his head, wearing a tailored business suit with the Crossover Queen's insignia on the lapel, walked down the ramp, followed by an average-looking, slightly slouchy black guy in a Moon Girl T-shirt, looking around and taking pictures with his phone.

"Haha!" shouted LAN.os, raising his chin, looking over the mist-covered landscape, soft like the dreams of a Lisa Frank unicorn. "Guardian! I summon you from your slumber. Awaken for LAN.os, son of the greatest warrior in the cosmos!"

The mists drew together before LAN.os, and out of them arose the shuffling, shadowy ghost of a character who never was - Ultra-Nazi-Squared, a concept for a net.villain who was dropped when the cultural view of Nazis as an easy default bad guy suddenly stopped being a Thing.

"lan.os of inferior," murmured the phantom. "you seek the stone... as have so many others... fools, all... once, i held the stone..."

"Skip the backstory, pathetic wretch, and take me to the site of my greatest victory!" LAN.os raised his fist in the air and shook it mightily.

The average-looking guy took a picture of the phantom. "This is going straight up on the Discord."

The villain-who-never-was lead them to the shore of a great lavender ocean, lapping at a beach of multicolored sugar sand. LAN.os grinned, cracking his knuckles. "Finally, my day of triumph and power approaches! Finally, the day the scales will be balanced - in favor of me!"

"Fat chance!" There was a THOOM! and water and sand sprayed up in the air as a figure landed on the beach. 

The wave crashed back down on LAN.os, who sputtered and flailed, suit and hat completely soaked. "Pff! Pfahfh! What!? Who! Who dares challenge LAN.os, second to the Crossover Queen!?"

"Who do you think, buster!?" There in the breaking tide stood a figure. She was dressed in a black catsuit with a red, blue and gold starburst on the chest and a stylish brown leather jacket with cybernetic wings on the back. On her head was a red fedora that worked a thousand times better on her, and on her hands were high-tech blue-and-silver gauntlets. She was the Keymaster of the Omnilooniverse. She was Net.Access.

"YOU!" LAN.os shook his fist at her. "Of course... I should have known you would come to oppose me!"

Net.Access shook her head dismissively. "Sorry, but I have bigger things going on. How'd you get back in the Friend Zone, tho? I figured I'd never see your weird chin here ever again."

LAN.os laughed. "Fool, I am stronger than you knew me! I have made... EXACTLY ONE FRIEND!" He grabbed the average-looking guy and squeezed him against his side. "DOUG, from the comic book store!!"

"Uh, hey." Doug wriggled in LAN.os's grip and waved to Net.Access. "Sorry about this."

She acknowledged him with a nod. "Pardon me if I don't applaud."

"Your praise is meaningless to me, so there! But I have entered the Friend Zone, and located the Characterization Stone, as part of the Crossover Queen's plan! Soon, we shall enter a great crossover, where I take my time obtaining all the Absurdity Stones, one by one, each one that I obtain bringing in at least half a billion dollars in the US, and even more worldwide! And when they are brought together, I-- I mean, she-- shall rule triumphant!" LAN.os looked around shiftily. "I'm definitely not planning to betray her. Just ask Doug!"

Doug nodded. "Yeah, totally. He comes to game nights and talks about how he's not planning to betray the Crossover Queen all the time."

"And now..." LAN.os turned toward the ocean. A great whirlpool formed on its surface, a swirling nexus ready to pull anything down into the briny depths. "The Characterization Stone requires a sacrifice! And I--" He lifted Doug up over his head, in both hands. "I shall sacrifice my exactly one friend!"

"Hey, wait wait what!" Doug squirmed around, dropping his phone in the sand. "LAN.os. Dude. We talked about this."

"Yes, Doug! I remember our great debates on the trolley problem, and my promise that I would not sacrifice any of the gamers with which we play! But you see, Doug!" LAN.os roared in triumph. "I HAD MY FINGERS CROSSED!"

Net.Access rolled her eyes, sliding her hand down her face. "Okay. Enough. Let him go."

LAN.os cackled in maniacal glee. "Now, we shall have the ultimate climactic bat--!"

Net.Access snapped her fingers and the beach underneath LAN.os turned into a quicksand trap from a 1950s adventure movie. He yelped as he was pulled down to chest level immediately. Net.Access tossed a vine to Doug and he climbed out gratefully.

"Like I said. I didn't come here to fight you." From the pocket of her jacket, Net.Access pulled a cube - or, rather, a Kube; one of the Kubrik's Kubes, once-mighty cosmic artifacts, now powerless pieces of multicolored plastic. "I came here to fix a mistake."

"Insolent woman!" LAN.os charged up his prodigious cosmic strength-- but by the laws of '50s adventure movies, flailing around only caused him to sink faster, and by the time he stopped, the quicksand was up to his shoulders. "As soon as my army--"

"You can't take an army into the Friend Zone, LAN.os, I know it's just you and Doug on an automated ship." Net.Access tossed the Kube up in the air, caught it, looking off in the distance, memories playing across the back of her eyes. "Do you remember, when we fought before?" She shook her head, laughed. "No, you wouldn't. It's not the kind of thing you pay attention to. But..."

She sighed, smiled wistfully at a happy moment. "After Victoria and I saved each other... we were talking to everybody, and I was like... well, I hope this teaches the Writers to finish what they start. And everybody agreed. But..." She shook her head. "But we were wrong. I was wrong."

"It wasn't..." Net.Access turned to look at the place the technicolor sky met the pastel sea. "It wasn't the unfinished stories that caused the rifts and put the Looniverses in danger. I thought that that's what it was, when I saw the great pattern at the heart of the cosmos, and the missing pieces that were breaking it apart. But..." She looked around, turned to Doug, just so she could have an audience who might listen. "But it wasn't the stories that hadn't been written. It was the stories that wouldn't be written. It wasn't just that the Writers weren't writing endings, they weren't writing anything. Because of guilt. Guilt over having left things half-done."

Doug nodded, eyes wide, not understanding a word, as a tide of mist rolled in from the fields and covered the beach in a whispering haze. LAN.os, nose-deep in the mist, sneezed.

"The impossible standards, the need to catch up, to..." Net.Access waved her hands in the air. "To climb a mountain when you've already fallen and hit every rock on the way down! Before you can do anything new." She sighed, taking off her hat and running her hand thru her hair. "That's how I failed Intro to Hamburgerology. Got caught on an unfinished assignment, never turned it in, stopped going to class... to be honest, I'm still not sure why they put sesame seeds on the buns."

"Uh, are you getting distracted?" asked Doug.

"My victory speech would have been a lot better," grumbled LAN.os. "It would have had lots of references to famous European philosophers. Sounded really smart."

"Right. Anyway, what I'm saying is, me and the whole narrative around the rift crisis might've made things worse." The wings on Net.Access's back started fluttering, and she rose up in the air. "So I decided to do what I could to fix things. To be honest, I was already in the Friend Zone before I sensed you coming. You're not what I came here for at all."

LAN.os snorted, turning his head away. "Humph! Women and their easy excuses..."

Doug sighed. "Did you even read the 'feminism 101' articles I kept linking you?"

"I... I skimmed them, I swear!"

Net.Access rose up over the whirlpool. "To summon the Characterization Stone..." She held out the Kube in front of her. "I summon our future." She closed her eyes. "The future where all those long-forgotten stories would be finally finished. Where everything that we hoped to see flashed before our eyes in a perfect moment. Where we could resolve everything, once and for all, and seal it with a perfect 'The End'."

The Kube began to glow, softly at first, then coruscating with silvery color, filling with the energies of dream and desire. "Once, I sacrificed a perfect, finished past for an unbounded future, bright with possibility. Now, I sacrifice a perfect, finished future, so that that unbounded possibility may be accessible to all, each day free of the guilt of ages, each day open and new!"

Net.Access lifted the Kube over her head, and the mist rose up from the beach, up from the magenta fields, up towards her. As the mist rose, it spiraled around itself, became a solid shape, like a tornado in reverse.

The tip of the tornado slammed into the Kube. It shook, and Net.Access held on with both hands, brows knitting as a torrent of unrealized possibility streamed recklessly in, the silver light brighter and brighter with each moment until it was eye-searing.

Net.Access lowered the Kube, holding it out before her, directly over the maw of the whirlpool. "I release the Writers! I release the plots! I release the guilt! I..." Her hand opened. "Release!" 

The Kube fell, tumbling end-over-end until it disappeared into the churning sea.

The whirlpool collapsed in on itself, and a column of light burst from the water. In the middle of that column was a fist-sized hunk of ruby, unfinished but scintillating with crimson light.

Net.Access reached out. Lighting crackled from the surface of the ruby into her outstretched hand, and she flinched, and turned her head away, eyes closed. But when she looked back, her eyes were glowing red, and her hand closed around the Characterization Stone.

"NO!" yelled LAN.os. "That was a meaningless sacrifice! Something you valued for the wrong reasons - something you had to let go of for your own good!"

Net.Access smirked, fedora perfectly perched on her head, eyes bright with the light of the Stone. "That's the most meaningful sacrifice you can make." She held the Stone in the air, pointing into the sky. "Let the wheels of characterization, stopped so long ago, grind into action once more! CHARACTEEEEEER... GRAND GROWTH!!"

Crimson lightning crackled around the Stone, around her body, and shot into the sky-- slamming against it like it was an invisible dome, and causing the dome to crack wide open, a gash that caused the alien light of a yellow sun to stream thru.

And thru that gap zoomed an enormous fishing hook, glinting golden, arcing thru the air and slamming into the sand. The hook was attached to a line, and the line pulled taut, pointing off thru the crack; and pulled thru by the line came a young man and an armored being. 

The man wore a white trenchcoat with shimmery silver trim over a white spandex bodysuit with silver boots, a silver belt with a gold buckle, and a gold, shield-shaped chest emblem with a silver fishing hook on it. The being's armor was composed of smooth plates, gunmetal gray for most of it, blue on the gloves and boots, with a shining white breastplate, a blue circle on the left panel, a blue square on the right, and a blank blue faceplate. Doug watched them fly down, mouth in an O of amazement, and snapped several pictures.

They landed with a thump! on the beach. "Net.Access, are you okay?" said the man. "I sensed an enormous plot hook right before that-- I mean, that rift opened." He looked concerned, youthful brow furrowed.

"I'm sensing intense cosmic energies from the object she's holding," said a deep, smoky voice from the armor. "It may be some form of cosmic plot device, tho from the spectral analysis, I can tell it is not the Cosmic Plot Device."

The Characterization Stone pulsed in Net.Access's hand, and a burst of crimson energy pulsed from her eyes. "Nnnn... okay, that's enough of that... Plot Hook Lad... Betamax... can you give me some kind of containment unit?"

"One moment." Betamax pulled seemingly random panels off her armor; beneath each was an identical panel, which rose into place. She brought them together, assembling a sleek gray-and-blue sphere with an iris on it, which she threw up to Net.Access; Net.Access dropped the Stone into it and sighed. "Whew."

"So do we-- WHOA is that LAN.os!" Plot Hook Lad took a step back.

"Hah, yes!" crowed the cosmic villain, raising his fist. "And now that you have secured the Characterization Stone for me, I will-- whoop, sinking, sinking..."

"Yeah," said Net.Access. landing on the beach. "Long story."

"He desired that object, and you stopped him," said Betamax.

"Okay, short story." Net.Access adjusted the iris on the containment sphere, and a trickle of crimson energy streamed out like mist. "But that's not important, the important thing is, talking about what's been going on in your lives lately."

"...you know, I know you've been spending a lot of time with your girlfriend lately, but you could have, like, sent a text or something," said Plot Hook Lad. "No need to unearth interdimensional artifacts."

"I believe it is for the artifact," said Betamax, whose voice was near-monotone yet excellent at conveying a subtle amusement.

"Right," smiled Net.Access, the drama of the previous scene slowly dissolving, the guilt that had been released easing away.

"Oh, well." Plot Hook Lad laughed, a bit of his old awkwardness showing up. "Why don't you go first, Betamax, and I hook in?"

"All right," she said. "As you both know, I was originally known to the LNH as Irony Man II, showing up after the original Irony Man retired, on a secret quest to find the Messiah of Sincerity so that we could recruit the cosmic being known as the Laziness to stop the cosmic beings known as the Serious Business."

"Right," said Net.Access. "I wasn't around for that whole thing; how did it go?"

"Well."

"...well?"

"Yes." Betamax's featureless head gave a simple nod. "We accomplished our goals."

"Ah." Net.Access scratched her head. "...okay, well, what's been happening with you lately?"

"Well, I decided to stay in the present, for now, as a member of the Legion. I took on the new moniker of Betamax, to signify an embrace not of technology as a simple arc of ever-increasing progression, but as a branching infinity of possible futures, and a reminder that simply because one is more 'advanced', one is not necessarily better."

"Wow," said Net.Access. "That is simultaneously really deep and excessively convoluted."

Betamax gave a small bow. "Thank you."

"Yeah, once that whole thing was resolved, I came back to the LNH too," said Plot Hook Lad. "They helped me get my life back in place, it was... really hard dealing with all the emotional stuff, but, like, better than the alternative, right?" He gave a chuckle and pushed his hair back. "My family's great... everything's okay now."

Net.Access took a step towards Plot Hook Lad and pulled him into a tight hug. He made a little noise of surprise, then returned it; after a moment, they separated. "So," said Net.Access, "how'd you come back to life, anyway?"

He grinned. "Oh, Masterplan Lad brought me back to life."

"Masterplan Lad!?" Net.Access blinked in surprise. "He never said anything about that!"

"Well, he hasn't done it yet, of course." Plot Hook Lad's grin widened, and he crossed his arms.

"...uuuuuh-huh." Net.Access found herself smiling despite herself. "And you're not gonna follow up on that, are you."

"Nope!" Plot Hook Lad bounced in place impishly.

"Okay, okay," said Net.Access, shaking her head cheerfully. "Well, get some cosmic-y types over here to contain LAN.os. Maybe stick him in the Ultimate Black Hole if that's still around? And if it's not, y'know, evil. ...it's probably evil tho"

"I shall contact my sources," said Betamax, walking over to the quicksand.

"Ha-HA!" cackled LAN.os, exulting. "LAN.os never loses! Now, Doug!"

"...now what?" said Doug.

"Activate the device I gave you, of course!"

Doug rummaged in his pocket. "You mean this weird silver thing with the red button that you said not to push?"

"Yes! Push it, Doug!!"

Doug sighed and handed the device to Betamax. "Dude, you literally tried to kill me."

"...for friendship, Doug! Or, well, causally linked to friendship, at least!" LAN.os attempted the puppy dog eyes, and Net.Access had to look away.

She looked toward Doug. "Are you okay? Physically, but also, uh, emotionally."

"Physically, yeah." Doug rubbed his thighs. "Emotionally... this has been a weird day."

"Yeah, it really--" The containment unit pulsed in her hand. "Hhh. Uhh, lemme just take care of this..."

Her outfit dissolved, reforming into a sepiatone version of Babe Ruth's uniform. She took a step back, winding up...

"Wait! No!" LAN.os shouted. "Fool! I'll have to find another-- I mean, make more-- I mean..."

Net.Access launched the containment unit over the ocean. It flew, arcing high into the air... and at the very top of the arc, burst apart, the Characterization Stone trailing crimson fire until it splashed into the sea and was gone.

She dusted off her hands. "Leave that for Earth-20 to deal with." She turned back to Doug, ignoring LAN.os's shouts. "I think it's gonna take a while for them to deal with this guy. Want a ride back?"

"Sure," said Doug, "but can't you only leave with a friend?"

Net.Access took his hand.  "When you go thru big weird cosmic stuff together, you're friends. That's a net.hero rule."

"Oh, well..." He rubbed the back of his head with his other hand, a bit shyly. "That sounds good. Thank you."

Net.Access lead him off the beach, down across the magenta fields. "I'm sorry if this is blunt, but... how'd you become friends with that guy, anyway?"

"Heh. No, I guess there's no good way to ask." Doug shrugged. "Honestly, he showed up at game night one week and just... really seemed like he needed something normal in his life. So we let him play. And like... honestly, for a while, it seemed like he was just... having fun just enjoying himself. But then... I don't know what changed."

Net.Access nodded in commiseration. "I think... some people can't let go of what they've convinced themselves they have to do. Even if it's not nearly as healthy for them as letting go and just having a good time."

"Yeah. You think I should, like..." Doug looked over his shoulder. "Cut him off?"

"That's up to you. But I would establish some boundaries, at the very least." 

"Yeah..."

They came to a tall, spreading tree with bark of rose gold and leaves of, surprisingly, emerald green. Beneath sat a well-composed, human-looking being, deep in a book, his umbrella leaning against a tree.

"Masterplan Lad!" Net.Access waved, and Masterplan Lad looked up. 

He waved and stood, putting away his book and taking up his umbrella as they walked over. "I see you met a new friend," he said.

Doug scratched the back of his neck, smiling. Net.Access chuckled. "Yeah, this place does that to you."

"Did you get done what you needed to?" said Masterplan Lad, adjusting his bowtie.

"For now." Net.Access looked off into the sky. "They'll probably need reminding."

Masterplan Lad nodded, a small, rueful, hopeful smile on his face. "They always do."

Masterplan Lad took Doug's hand, and together, the three of them walked forward; and as they walked, they shimmered into soft, multicolored light, and they faded from the Friend Zone. But they could return anytime they felt like it, without grief or pain. And, reader, so can you.

[violet--minds-blog]

‘The Bold Type’ and Surface-Level Intersectionality

Piper Gibson | July 26, 2017

Long time, no write, I know. It’s hard, as a mentally ill person working and going to school and trying to stay politically aware in these trying times, to update this blog. But I’m back with another post, because I am annoyed.

I’ve caught up with The Bold Type, a new Freeform series which is about three friends who work at a women’s magazine and is currently airing its first season. As I’m writing this there’s four episodes, but each is packed with so much that rubs me the wrong way that I’ve been incessantly livetweeting on my (private) Twitter about it. I don’t even know where to start, so I suppose I’ll begin with a few things I like.

I like that it’s a women-driven show. I like that we get to see women in power and at the top of their game. I like that the side characters are kinda diverse. I like that it passes the Bechdel test in a major, major way. I like that they are at least trying to come from an intersectional feminist perspective. That’s actually why I’m really frustrated with this show, but I’ll talk about that more later.

Firstly. Jane, the kind-of main character (To me, she’s clearly the main protagonist, but it could be argued that her, Kat, and Sutton are all protagonists) is boring. I’m sorry. She just is the human embodiment of plain yogurt. I cannot bring myself to care about her budding career or mediocre hetero love life. I don’t care when she wins, and I don’t care when she loses. I guess to some, her story might be interesting, but I just... don’t... care. I feel basically the same about Sutton, but she’s a teense more likable because the glimpses of her backstory spark an interest in me. For Jane, I think the writers were going for a Gifted-Child-Who-Grew-Up-To-Need-To-Please-Authority-Figures vibe, which I can relate to, except I see basically nothing of myself in her. Maybe it’s the bland cishet girl thing, but she’s not doing it for me.

My main problem with this show is that they focus on Plain Jane (low-hanging fruit, I know, but I had to do it), who has the personality of a lightly-salted potato chip, way more than they focus on Kat, who is IMO the most interesting person on the show. For a series that’s at least kind of trying to be diverse, it’s frustrating to me that 2/3 of the main characters are white and cis and heterosexual, but anyway. They have two cis, heterosexual, white woman main characters and then a black woman main character who is questioning her sexuality. Who do you think a large portion of the viewership for a show that claims to be feminist is gonna gravitate towards? Not the pasty heteros, probably.

Kat is dynamic, and interesting, and good at her job, not to mention gorgeous as all hell. Yet they give her storylines like "Black Girl Who Grew Up Upper-Middle Class Has to Have Poverty Explained to Her by White Girl” and “Black Girl Living In Modern-Day America Somehow Doesn’t Understand Why A WOC Immigrant Might Not Want to Interact With Police” and “Black Girl Who Works at a Feminist Magazine Doesn’t Seem to Know About Bisexuality For Some Reason” and y’all. It’s honestly so tiring. I understand that Kat is the one with the majority of the interactions with Adena to set up the queer romance between them (which I love and appreciate) but this also means Kat is their point-girl to explain xenophobia and immigration issues to the audience. 

I would like that they’re showing interracial ignorance issues, because people of color can be ignorant about and discriminatory towards other people of color, but I don’t think that’s what they set out to do. I think they wanted this to be a cool, hip, intersectional show, so they do a few kind of performative scenes where the Muslim lesbian woman on a work visa explains to another woman of color why she doesn’t take her hijab off or why she ran when the police showed up after a man assaulted her. At one point, Kat’s white boss actually explains to her that Adena ran from the cops because she could’ve gotten deported, which Kat hadn’t even considered somehow. What this actually does is tell the audience that Kat is ignorant on issues pertaining to women of color, and since Jane and Sutton literally never have race discussions beside one throw-away line about the Civil War from Jane, it feels like race is a topic secluded to only a few WOC characters. The women of color do all the literal and metaphorical emotional labor on this topic on the show, and the white women characters don’t have to deal with it. Which, I guess, is realistic to actual race relations between women, but I would like it to be acknowledged on-screen. For Kat to have to be the person with the brunt of the ignorance on xenophobia and queer issues while her white friends don’t have to deal with it is upsetting, to say the least. Because the show doesn’t address it, to me, it feels like them saying that white women are just so much better and more knowledgeable about these things than women of color, which is just... straight up wrong. I’d like at least one scene of Sutton and Jane not understanding something about race and Kat saying “Just Google it, I’m not gonna do the emotional labor for the both of you,” please, for the love of God. 

This isn’t even all of my problems with the show. It revolves way too much around romance and sex for media that seems to say women’s lives don’t have to revolve around romance and sex, for one thing. Both Jane and Sutton’s love interests are white assholes. Sutton’s boyfriend works for the same company as her and as such, is in a position of power over her. At least the show acknowledges that if this were to get out, the high-up board member boyfriend would not be the one in trouble and probably fired. But he’s still touted as this super sweet guy who tries really hard, despite him talking down to Sutton about how young she is and how he “remembers feeling like” there was no time to accomplish things like he’s so much more worldly and intelligent than her. Ew. Dump him, sweetheart.

Jane’s love interest is the. Literal. Worst. His name is like, Tyler or Aaron or something douchey, and he’s my least favorite guy archetype. Tyler-Aaron works for the “rival” men’s magazine about sex and relationships, with stunning article titles like “How To Make Your Girlfriend Fuck Like a Porn Star.” I know. Obviously, White Feminist Jane hates him at first. But I am a smart person, so when I saw them get in a disagreement in which he condescendingly calls her article “cute” and she storms off, I said, “Oh no. They’re gonna fuck, aren’t they.” Because that’s what happens every time a man and a woman dislike each other in popular media. A woman thinks a man is sexist? Yeah, eventually she’s gonna see the error of her ways and they’re gonna have sex.

See, what bothers me about Tyler-Aaron is that they made him a Secret Male Feminist. He tells Jane, “You haven’t read my articles, have you?” after she calls them sexist, and everyone tells her that he’s a pretty good writer and not a bad guy. He told her there’s nothing he finds sexier than a woman speaking her mind, and he wrote one good article about how women feeling like they need to fake orgasms is the fault of men, so he really schooled her, huh? Jane stands there with her mouth agape as Secret Male Feminist struts away smirking, and then within a day or so she’s kissing him. Yawn. Puke. Etc, etc.

This storyline doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because he already was a dick. He already condescended her writing, said she was sexy when she called him out for legitimate reasons, and wrote shitty sexist articles. Him writing one good article or being nice to her now doesn’t change that. And making him teach her something about feminism or prove her ideas wrong is akin to gaslighting. Women are already told every single day that we’re imagining all this discrimination and violence, that sexism is basically over and we need to shut up, that Congress passed X thing or a movie had Y plot so we “won,” and it’s time to move on. We’re told this despite seeing and experiencing this violence on every level, starting with interpersonal and going up to governmental and global. Tyler-Aaron apparently being an okay guy instead of the sexist douche Jane once thought he was (and I still know he is) is basically the show saying, “Hey, crazy feminist, not all men are bad, and some can be feminist, so calm down, okay? Your gut-reaction of a man being sexist and condescending is a fake reaction and you’re just making things up and jumping to conclusions.” It’s gross. And I expect better.

That’s why I dislike the show. It’s clearly trying, at least a tiny little bit, to be feminist and intersectional. It could be a really great, diverse, ground-breaking show. Instead, it is still so limited, racist, and surface-level white feminist-y. Most of what it tries to do, it fails. And, okay, I recognize that it’s important that a show like this, with a large majority of female characters, even exists. But they’re doing a disservice to characters like Kat, a lot of characters are boring and one-dimensional, and they haven’t even mentioned issues like trans or disability rights. It’s just not great writing, folks. Personally, when a show claims to be feminist, I expect it to follow through.

[someonetotaketheedgeoff-blog]

2.10.2018 - Journal (Feminism)

(Written on 26.06.2018)

For me procrastination is completely interlocked with addiction. I’m addicted to putting shit off. Why?

All I do is scroll on my phone and smoke. Occasionally I make shit and get a few important things done but then I go back into melt back into a procrastinatory coma,

almost not existing and/or having no control over anything I do. It’s terrifying really. I’m afraid of my own lack of self control.

I’m afraid of not living the fullest life I can. Due to being afraid of living the fullest life I can live (not knowing or knowing the full extent of your potential is a terribly conflicting idea. You’ll never find out what it is and you’ll only figure it out by trying. You continue wandering down your own personal dark cave of potential potential, crossing your fingers so hard they contort and almost snap as you pray that the cave doesn’t end. Many people reach some point in there lives where they just decide to set up camp in the dark somewhere and call it a day. They watch as others walk past. As they get older and more bitter they’ll spit and screech at the passers by - ‘Yeah don’t worry about going any further mate, there’s nothing there, I’m sure of it. Nothing but blackness ahead… Spoiler alert you never figure out who you are, it’s a myth, it’s a load of bullshit, come sit by the fire and drink with me… and I’ll tell you stories about myself that I wish were true but have been so beaten down by fear I can’t remember what’s real any more anyway’).

It’s pretty ironic. I’m attached to my life and not at the same time. There’s a group of contradicting  voices within me. Which I believe is what the idea of nihilism does to the mind. Nothing means anything and everything means something.

After watching Nanette and the recent death of Eurydice all I think about is how cooked the world is. How cooked it is for women and people that aren’t white, straight and male. Yet I’m on top of the food chain and still struggle to be ‘happy’.

No one wants to hear that though. Of course they don’t want to hear it. It’s irrelevant. When there’s an imbalance you don’t want any focus on anything other than what’s creating the imbalance. You don’t want some straight white guy, that grew up with nice supporting intelligent parent’s with money that fostered any fucking thing I wanted to do saying they struggle to be happy.

This disclaimer’s important. It’s never been my point to try and receive sympathy or claim that my problems are on par with anyone else’s problems. I’m simply regurgitating my experiences (i.e having a massive whine on the internet).

It is worth noting though that even at the top it (can) still suck. But that’s not what oppressed people are concerned about. They’re concerned because of the insane crime of being oppressed and treated as if they’re not human.

I don’t really know why that’s my knee jerk quip to the current situation. It’s probably a very selfish one. Probably a defensive one. To basically be like - ‘Well… just so you know ladies, it’s still horrible up here at the top… so you know… no rush’. Which’s a horrible thought that came from brain, but I don’t want to be a bad person, so I’m sharing it with you.

It’s difficult because it’s true and that’s confusing. But it’s a waste of time because it’s not helping equality if I take up hours of days writing think pieces about how minorities haven’t been so unlucky as to be equal so that they can enjoy the fruits of nihilism to it’s full extend and various other irritating philosophical conundrums. The fact that life’s a struggle even when you’re on the top is something to talk about later, not now.

(I’m sharing this thought process because I’m ashamed of it. I want everything to be good and kind and equal and I want people to have the best lives they possibly could)

Perhaps it required the anger and insanity of all the shades of feminism to get the world to listen. And you know, if for the price of people (males) at least beginning to talk about things was due to 17 ridiculous BuzzFeed videos about the dangers of man-spreading! Then you know that’s OK.

The problem is there are many aspects and pockets of internet feminism that’re kind of crazy, kind of nit-picking and overly extreme. Things such as mansplaining’s problematic because it can be sexist in itself if you’re a women being talking to by a guy about something and you just assume they’re talking down to you because of your gender, unless that information is revealed at some point (or if after further investigation and several miracles that particular guy admits he was talking down). It’s specifying and dangerously locking down aspects of being a cunt and assigning that behaviour to a gender.

The man spreading thing is also very over the top and overly dramatic. And you know what, bloody unnecessary! Very nit picking and strange! It’s such a strange and small thing to get all angry about, why would someone care so much about someone sitting on the train with slightly spread legs? It’s just crazy feminazis. I just don’t understand! I mean why would women be so nit picky about such a minor thing? It’s not as if there’s an inherent under-hum of neck hair prickling fear within all women all the time, 24 hours day, for their whole lives that a man might kill or rape them! No… that’d be ridiculous.

I’m explaining this stuff in a cheeky manner to hopefully gain your attention.

I believe that on a surface level that things such as ‘mansplaining’ and ‘manspreading’ are strangely specific and they’re issues that completely isolated are irrelevant. But they come from a place, a fucked up darker place (that shit doesn’t just come out of fucking no where).

I believe shit like ‘mansplaining’ and ‘manspreading’ are partly responsible for why ‘feminism’ (at least on the internet) is a complete fuckfest. And why some people (mostly males again) believe the word to mean - ‘We hate men, we want to be the top dogs, I wish to be on a throne while men in gimp suits scurry around my feet offering a silver cup of their tears’.

I believe it’s because people, men and women, see something specific, something like ‘mansplaining’ or ‘manspreading’ and that is all they see. Maybe they’re young, they haven’t experienced much and haven’t begun to explore and research. And unfortunately the small window of opportunity in their minds gets filled with that and they shit and they shut off completely. And as we all know Pablo Honey wasn’t a very good album.

They see that and go ‘oh well that ridiculous, they’re winging about me spreading my legs on a train… wow ridiculous’.

And all the women are like - ‘Well yeah mate… Because you rape us and you kill us…’.

But at that point it is too late. The guys already making Feminist’s Get Destroyed Comp 7 on YouTube.

Talking to a friend she told me she ‘hates men collectively, not individually’. Laying in bed later that evening flicking that thought around like a Rubix cube made out of penis’s I flipped it on it’s head and imagined I said the sentence - ‘I hate women collectively, not individually’. Aha! I thought. That will just not do, that’s fucking sexist! That’s a load of horseshit. After I calmed down and my non-opposable thumbs were sore after pounding them on the glass of my enclosure I looked across at my cave paintings, at all the boobs I’d drawn, and various other blog posts and thought you know what? Having a brief flick through of history (and especially current times) women are totally without any argument allowed to collective ‘hate’ men if they want too… in fact I’d be confused if they didn’t.

All of this reminded me of something the great black comic Patrice O’neal once said about race and his animosity towards white people. Which is truly ironic because he had many extremely polarising views on women and gender. However I think it applies well.

He begins talking about Hitler and the Nazis.

‘…Hitler and his crew… after the war it was against the law… you can’t even have the moustache no more…. you can’t even rock that… you just don’t rock it… that nigger is the devil, OK… that moustache is the devil! Hitler then the devil…

So what that enables you to do is move on…. it enables you to move on… meaning I don’t have to hate every German. I don’t have to be bogged down. After the holocaust being a fucking Nazi was criminal… to this day. Like they find out you used to be a Nazi you get fucked over. You can’t even apologise, oh no I only put a couple in the ovens… no no no… you’re done, you’re fucked… which is great for the spirit of being Jewish! We went though this, we know exactly what happened, we know exactly how many people it happened too and we know exactly who did it! So it enables you to have a chapter in a book…

When I start off with white people I say look… white is the only thing we got from slavery.

We have a finish date… questionable start date… questionable amount of people that died, questionable affect on our minds… when we were free they was like bye nigger nice talking to you, OK, you’ve been living this way for 400 years, now we expect you to live wonderfully now and what we did to you was not criminal and the only thing left is your skin so you have the skin colour of the enemy… so… every white person is Hitler’s moustache… really… to my gut all white skin is that… on some level’.

I wonder if you can easily see the comparison I’m trying to draw by referencing this. Basically men are the Hitler’s moustache to women… on some level.

[rorodawnchorus]

Unpopular opinion about Jae’s statement (and apology)

Everything should be under cut

Disclaimer: I have yet to read the comments by netizens criticising Jae. I did not write this to advocate for the statements they have made online. In no way is this piece intended to support harmful and superficial comments with the sole purpose of causing emotional and mental harm to individuals (or celebrities). Such statements would include but is not limited to making baseless accusations, criticising their looks or non-controversial behaviour, etc. 

Jae has chosen to express himself in a way which was very direct. He did not try to embellish his words or wrap it in gift paper. He straight out said there are women who are gold-diggers. There are specific terms in many cultures dedicated to such women. I know not of the Korean name for it, but I’m pretty sure there is one. I do not deny that gold-diggers exist; they’re not a unicorn after all. 

I get that fans are protective of their favourite groups and bias. I understand that they feel sorry for this man that he has been forced to apologize for something he said. The thing about freedom of expression is that it is in need of everyone’s constant self-reflection and self-regulation of what they say. Do I think what he said was offensive to the point of calling for a formal apology? No, not really. My first response to the conversation was: ok. I know he’s the kind of guy to pick McDs or have a say in what they decide to eat for a meal. Does not affect me since it is, after all, a personal decision and personal choice of a grown man who has autonomy in what he does or eats. 

However, the part in which he talks about putting out a test for a girl with whom he goes on a first date might have been off-putting. Men often like to complain that women never say what they really feel or want. They blame women for always making men feel like they are having an exam or test, trying to find the right answers to simplest questions. Women don’t have hashtags saying #notallwomen when it comes to issues as such. 

Before I get sidetracked, his choice in doing this is that he wants to test this hypothetical girl with whom he goes on a first date with: is she willing to eat a $5 meal with me before I take her to a $300 meal? To make this sound less offensive, perhaps, is this person willing to take the bus with me when I can no longer sit in a limo. There is nothing wrong. He might have had an experience in which someone had used him for money or other beneficial gains. Perhaps he thought of this as applicable to not only girls but also to male friends. But that is only my assumption. 

When we say that everyone should respect one’s freedom of expression, it means you may disagree with them but you would still respect that. The limits drawn in freedom of expression that it should not be something that hurts someone’s feelings, sentiments or reputation. That is why laws of defamation exist. What he said is not, in essence, wrong. But the way he said it must have set off alarms because he’s setting an example that men should all test women by taking them to McD and see how they react. Given the context of South Korea, where patriarchy and Confucian values remain firmly rooted, such statements contribute to a discursive pattern that is already prevalent amongst men in their society. Criticisms hurled at women with derogatory terms such as “gold-diggers”(and its Korean equivalent), doenjang-nyeo 된장녀, etc. are aimed to degrade women. Even though Jae did not have such intentions, which I believe he did not, and he probably does not share the views of other Korean men, his words inevitably served that end. 

When we talk about respecting Jae’s feelings and his freedom of expression, should we not also show the same respect to the feelings and freedom of expression of others? They may have different levels of sensitivities and this may differ culturally. To discount their feelings as “acting up” or nitpicking ultimately means that there is a denial of respect given to their feelings and freedom of expression. I can’t speak for Korean women although I can, in some ways, understand and empathise with their plight in a patriarchal society. We should also keep in mind that these netizens do not automatically represent the majority of Korean female population. 

Feminism has been a heated topic of debate across the globe and also in S.Korea. The official investigations on the Prosecutors office, on influential men or actors who have, in the past, allegedly committed some form of sexual crime against women is an indication of how much presence feminism currently holds in their society.   

To further understand, misogyny is called 여성혐오(女性嫌惡, misogyny 미소지니[*]) 또는 여성증오(女性憎惡). The Hanja characters “嫌惡” mean extreme dislike and revulsion (极度反感或厌恶). To translate, the English equivalent would be to detest, loathe, abhor. The definition of the Chinese word itself is extreme aversion and hatred. Sexual crimes have been an age old social practice but why is it suddenly surfacing and why are women fighting back? There is a camp saying that women are simply exaggerating and are “extreme complainers” but, I believe, this is attributed to the increasing financial independence of women, especially in Korea and thus giving them courage to voice out. In countries with deep-seated Confucian values, China as well, it is a difficult topic. There are also many women denouncing feminism. It has never been easy to be a feminist; not during the first and second wave, and definitely not now. But still, if we talk about respect, we need to give respect equally. 

And if there are people who thought that his way of saying what he thinks was throwing a negative light on women by generalising and stereotyping them, then that should be respected too. 

For an American, Jae sure is conservative for thinking that he would have to definitely pay for a first date. Nothing wrong if he wants to be the one paying, of course. In the S.Korean context, perhaps this is still the case (Do tell me otherwise if I’m wrong). Otherwise, they could have something else and they can go dutch. Or they could just have McD and go dutch. To say that women criticising Jae is presumptively materialistic is also disrespectful to women who face a different reality and may have different lived experience as a woman. His statement was - in certain ways - presumptuous. But I personally do not think it was necessary for a formal apology; not if he does not actually reflect on what he said and felt that he could have worded it better. What is more important is the latter because formal apologies coming from JYPE is an expected response to anything controversial. (See: Tzuyu). 

I know people who refuse to eat McD and I respect their opinion even though I like it a lot. (They made a conscious choice for health reasons; I care nothing about my health.) But to assume that they want only fine dining experience would be wrong. To assume that a person disliking fast food means they are materialistic is wrong. You can go to McD with a friend who doesn’t eat it. He/she can sit there with you and not order anything simply because they don’t like McD, right? Just so that we are on the same page about respecting everyone equally.

P.s. I love Day6′s music and I think this was not that severe as to call for a formal apology. My initial response to this conversation was that he’s the kind of person to say that and yeah, some people just want to know how people around them act; or what these “friends” are looking to gain from a relationship. But I am also often critical of how I think or speak. I also do not think that as fans, one would have to unconditionally stand up for their favourite group and its members. Frankly, even if my own mother makes any unpleasant remarks, I would tell her that’s not right either. 

Here is a 35-minute video of a young Korean woman talking about feminism and misogyny. Here is a 12-minute video on talking about feminism in S.Korea with a balanced view of both women and men as victims of misogynistic acts.