with your face sketched on it twice

"People will often cry gross over-intellectualisation when popular culture is critically addressed,..."

Sun, 12 May 2013 18:41:31 -0700

“People will often cry gross over-intellectualisation when popular culture is critically addressed, as if it is somehow exempt from serious consideration because it is itself ‘non-serious’, just a bit of fun that doesn’t require or deserve dissection. I disagree; every expression of art is a product of its environment and as such will reflect the concerns, preoccupations and neuroses of the time. Mainstream entertainment particularly, by its very nature, has to reflect the dominant modes of thinking in order to qualify as mainstream, and in that respect, mass entertainment is even more fun to pick apart.”

- Simon Pegg, ‘Nerd do well’ (via ninestories)

cardenio: lambocalypse: lightspeedsound: manybodies: lightspe...

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:08:28 -0700

cardenio:

lambocalypse:

lightspeedsound:

manybodies:

lightspeedsound:

lunapics:

theshells:

I can’t stop laughing at Harry running the fuck away, the boy who lived ladies and gentlemen.

….You realize, of course, that Hermione Granger lit a teacher on fire when she was eleven, and kept a person alive in a jar for a year when she was fourteen, and studies dark and forbidden magics for kicks, and is one of the brightest and strongest witches of her era. If she came at me, even wandless, I would aparate to Neptune to get away from her.

Hermione Granger also:

punched Draco Malfoy in the nose for being an idiot

purposefully performed a confundus charm on whatshsface WHILE HE WAS FLYING just so Ron would win (omfg that is so fucking dangerous)

literally pulled a fucking Bourne Identity on her parents and managed to set them up in fucking Australia (jesus christ she literally made it so that she NEVER EXISTED wtf that’s so fucking 007)

Convinced the Ministry of Magic to give her an incredibly dangerous and volatile device that allowed her to ALTER TIMELINES COMPLETELY (just because she was so smart, literally, that is the reason, her “potential”)

Has enough basic survival skills and badass magic to literally disappear to the middle of nowhere and flourish AND figure out Voldemort’s plot with Harry

Hermione also figures out not only what Voldemort’s plan is, but generally how to beat it, WAY BEFORE VOLDEMORT EVER DOES. Why? because she is just that much smarter and better at magic than everybody else

in conclusion: Voldemort wishes he could be as awesome as Hermione, that’s why he wants to kill her so bad.

Can we rehave this series with hermione as the protagonist.

Hermione Granger and “That Time I Used the Power of Research and Deductive Reasoning to Make Sure Harry Didn’t Die”

Hermione Granger and “That time I figured shit out and literally ended up petrified for the cause and it took my friends weeks to figure out that I had the research on me”

Hermione Granger and “That Time I Was a Time Lord”

Hermione Granger and “That Time I Realized I was Hot and Smart and Saved Harry’s Ass with Research. Again. All the Time. Really, He Would Have Died Without Me.”

Hermione Granger and “That time Harry was too emo to actually do shit so I did shit in his name because I am the power behind the throne clearly also PS fought evil deatheaters and won”

Hermione Granger and “That Time I told Harry about the Dangers of Copying off Somebody’s else’s work that wasn’t mine and OH LOOK I WAS RIGHT”

Hermione Granger and “That Time I let Harry Decide Where to Go and What To do and we ended up wandering the forests of dean for like 5 months before saving his ass at Hogwarts”

OH LOOK I WAS RIGHT

all of the above ^^

Have you accepted Hermione Granger as your lord and savior?

yesampersand: Daniel Day Lewis as Obama in Steven Spielberg’s...

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:43:33 -0700

yesampersand:

Daniel Day Lewis as Obama in Steven Spielberg’s “Obama”.

I died a little.

linguaphile: songofsunset: How media clearly reflects the sexism and the racism we cannot see in...

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:34:11 -0700

linguaphile:

songofsunset:

How media clearly reflects the sexism and the racism we cannot see in ourselves.

glamaphonic:

I wanted my first-year film students to understand what happens to a story when actual human beings inhabit your characters, and the way they can inspire storytelling. And I wanted to teach them how to look at headshots and what you might be able to tell from a headshot. So for the past few years I’ve done a small experiment with them.

Some troubling shit always occurs.

It works like this: I bring in my giant file of head shots, which include actors of all races, sizes, shapes, ages, and experience levels. Each student picks a head shot from the stack and gets a few minutes to sit with the person’s face and then make up a little story about them.

Namely, for white men, they have no trouble coming up with an entire history, job, role, genre, time, place, and costume. They will often identify him without prompting as “the main character.” The only exception? “He would play the gay guy.” For white women, they mostly do not come up with a job (even though it was specifically asked for), and they will identify her by her relationships. “She would play the mom/wife/love interest/best friend.” I’ve heard “She would play the slut” or “She would play the hot girl.” A lot more than once.

For nonwhite men, it can be equally depressing. “He’s in a buddy cop movie, but he’s not the main guy, he’s the partner.” “He’d play a terrorist.” “He’d play a drug dealer.” “A thug.” “A hustler.” “Homeless guy.” One Asian actor was promoted to “villain.”

For nonwhite women (grab onto something sturdy, like a big glass of strong liquor), sometimes they are “lucky” enough to be classified as the girlfriend/love interest/mom, but I have also heard things like “Well, she’d be in a romantic comedy, but as the friend, you know?” “Maid.” “Prostitute.” “Drug addict.”

I should point out that the responses are similar whether the group is all or mostly-white or extremely racially mixed, and all the groups I’ve tried this with have been about equally balanced between men and women, though individual responses vary. Women do a little better with women, and people of color do a little better with people of color, but female students sometimes forget to come up with a job for female actors and black male students sometimes tell the class that their black male actor wouldn’t be the main guy.

Once the students have made their pitches, we interrogate their opinions. “You seem really sure that he’s not the main character – why? What made you automatically say that?” “You said she was a mom. Was she born a mom, or did she maybe do something else with her life before her magic womb opened up and gave her an identity? Who is she as a person?” In the case of the “thug“, it turns out that the student was just reading off his film resume. This brilliant African American actor who regularly brings houses down doing Shakespeare on the stage and more than once made me weep at the beauty and subtlety of his performances, had a list of film credits that just said “Thug #4.” “Gang member.” “Muscle.” Because that’s the film work he can get. Because it puts food on his table.

So, the first time I did this exercise, I didn’t know that it would turn into a lesson on racism, sexism, and every other kind of -ism. I thought it was just about casting. But now I know that casting is never just about casting, and this day is a real teachable opportunity. Because if we do this right, we get to the really awkward silence, where the (now mortified) students try to sink into their chairs. Because, hey, most of them are proud Obama voters! They have been raised by feminist moms! They don’t want to be or see themselves as being racist or sexist. But their own racism and sexism is running amok in the room, and it’s awkward.

This for every time someone criticizes how characters of color and female characters of color especially are treated in text and by subsequent fandoms. It’s never “just a television/movie/book”. It’s never been ”just”.

I once did an exercise like this one — not in a specifically media context, but as part of a Peer Assistance Leadership conference AGES AND AGES AGO (I was like twelve). We were split into groups and given a picture per group. We had to come up with a life story for that person and write out the details on a big piece of butcher paper to share with the group.

The twelve-year-olds in my group of southern CA students easily came up with a life story for the college-aged Asian woman whose picture we’d been given. “She was in orchestra, she plays the violin.” “She’s a good student.” “She doesn’t seem athletic.” “She probably goes to a really good college, but she’s stressed all the time.”

We had a lot of stuff up on that piece of butcher paper when the woman in the photograph walked into the room.

All of the photos were of college students who were running this conference. They told us about their lives, their experiences, how they’d gotten to be interested in peer counseling and leadership, etc. And the whole time we were looking sideways at our butcher papers full of stereotypes and feeling incredibly uncomfortable that the images we’d seen as generic were in fact REAL PEOPLE, with real lives that didn’t fit our explanations.

I’m a writer. I see people on the street or in the subway or in my classroom and my brain immediately starts making up stories about them — who they are, what they do, what kind of book they’d be in. But this exercise always comes back to remind me that I don’t know anyone’s story unless I ask them for it, and if I don’t, I’ll come up with a lot of stereotypes that expose more about me than they do about anyone else.

the longer i run the less that i find: frightfullytreeish: au where tony is a really avant garde michilen...

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:28:42 -0700

the longer i run the less that i find: frightfullytreeish: au where tony is a really avant garde michilen...:

saathi1013:

copperbadge:

frightfullytreeish:

au where tony is a really avant garde michilen star chef who does crazy shit with LIQUID NITROGEN and FOAMS and MENTAL TASTE COMBINATIONS and steve is a classically trained chef who has turned his back on the snobbery of the classical kitchen to make food affordable and bruce is one of those guys who seems super quiet but once he’s in the kitchen he shouts at you in french and throws pans everywhere and shit and shield is a really weird high concept restaurant where like all the food is served in the dark and the menu is a secret and natasha and clint probably COOK IT IN THE DARK TOO and obviously thor is making BIG BOLD TRENDY NORWEIGAN FUSION FOOD NEW KID ON THE BLOCK OOH

and they all unite against loki who is an overly critical food critic I guess

TOBRU and War On Hunger are usually located next to each other. Not always, because War On Hunger is on wheels, but usually. TOBRU is one of the only restaurants in Manhattan that hasn’t run the War On Hunger food truck out of its territory, and Steve in his gratitude usually leaves them some chickpea chocolate cake or a plate of locally-made pasta to eat after closing time. Steve’s presence in the kitchen, sneaking in to stash food in the fridge, has become a regular occurrence.

The first time Steve fed Tony, Tony looked at him and said “Why are you such a fucking hipster?”

“Beg pardon?” Steve asked. He wasn’t a hipster. Yes, he ran a food truck and wore suspenders, but that was because he liked food trucks and suspenders.

“Why are you running a food truck when you can cook like this? Come work for me. We’ll find something for you to do.”

“Oh,” Steve said sheepishly. “Well. I’m classically trained.”

“How classically?”

“Michelin-star classically,” Steve said.

“Fuck, you’re that Steve Rogers, the freak who quit his star chef job to make bran for the poor.”

“I don’t make bran,” Steve said, somewhat offended. “I make healthy meals for an affordable price.”

“Whatever. Come work for me.”

“No, thank you, Mr. Stark,” Steve said politely.

“Then come park in our parking lot. I can guarantee you a crowd of people who don’t eat enough at our restaurant.”

“You could serve bigger portions.”

“You offend my mission statement. Call me Tony.”

Steve smiled. “Whatever you say, Tony.”

There was a crash from inside and the sound of someone yelling in French at the top of his lungs.

“That’s just Bruce,” Tony said dismissively. “He’s probably having trouble with the hydrogen canisters again.”

“Should I keep my distance?”

“No! He’s really nice, you’ll like him. Except when he’s cooking. You wouldn’t like him when he’s cooking.”

“Duly noted.”

“Come again tomorrow, send me your menu, we’ll work out something that coordinates. I’ll tell people to bring you their stub from TOBRU and you can add ten percent to the price of everything they buy.”

Steve watched Tony go with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

“And if I find you cheating with those Shield bastards, I’ll beat the Michelin Star out of you!” Tony added over his shoulder as he disappeared into the kitchen.

Steve definitely wasn’t worried. Shield was creepy. He’d heard of places where you ate in the dark, but apparently their head chef, Nick Fury, made everyone cook in the dark too. That couldn’t be healthy.

(To be continued maybe I just wanted to plant my flag in this idea)

OH MY GOD. I would have reblogged this for the following line alone:

“He’s really nice, you’ll like him. Except when he’s cooking. You wouldn’t like him when he’s cooking.”

Don’t usually read Avengers fic but damn.

stuff-and-shenanigans: …I think I just found my new favorite...

Thu, 02 May 2013 13:27:06 -0700

stuff-and-shenanigans:

…I think I just found my new favorite photo of Neil and Amanda

Favorite couple.

Hot damn.

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:07:26 -0700

Hot damn.

lovelydyedlocks: That internal struggle between wanting to grow your hair out and also wanting to...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:15:03 -0700

lovelydyedlocks:

That internal struggle between wanting to grow your hair out and also wanting to chop it all off.

GPOY

buxombibliophile: trashydyke: this was actually so good I...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:47:29 -0700

buxombibliophile:

trashydyke:

this was actually so good

I should save this so I can explain our culture to my future children.

Oh my God.

I just wanna create good art, ok.

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:42:34 -0700

Everyone back to their usual Tumblring mess.

Fucking feels.

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:37:37 -0700

Fucking feels.

widdershinsgirl: theprophetlilith: the1janitor: THEY’D BE...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:28:46 -0700

widdershinsgirl:

theprophetlilith:

the1janitor:

THEY’D BE SLAUGHTERED IMMEDIATELY

WONDER WOMAN THA GOD

“Now go, unleash hell.” MY NEW WATCHWORD.

Always reblog the day Wonder Woman taught a little girl to unleash the fury!

petitsirena: deadlycamille: dendroquiver: dr-killjoy: Janelle...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:22:45 -0700

petitsirena:

deadlycamille:

dendroquiver:

dr-killjoy:

Janelle Monáe Feat. Erykah Badu- Q.U.E.E.N.

YUP

OMG DEAD PERFECTION EXISTS

Yeeees.

twigwise: asuka-sohryu: next time you’re feeling like shit remember the sloths they don’t do...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:17:16 -0700

twigwise:

asuka-sohryu:

next time you’re feeling like shit

remember the sloths

they don’t do anything ever

and they haven’t gone extinct

you can afford to take a nap

This

Is literally the most uplifting and comforting thing I’ve read all day

For all the women I have loved who were dragged through the mud

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 19:14:33 -0700

commanderbishoujo:

spicyobsession:

aiffe:

I’ve read a lot of great essays about how fandom is female-majority and creates a female gaze and a safe space for women and etc. But spend five minutes in fandom and you’ll have an unsettling question.

Why does a female-majority, feminist culture hate female characters so much?

It’s not a question of if it happens. You know it does. You can go into any fandom and see it. Some fandoms are worse than others, but it’s always there. Scroll down the Tumblr tag for any show, movie, book, comic, whatever, and you’ll see nothing but love for the men, and a lot of unjustified hate for the women, maybe with a few defenders here and there insisting on their love for the women in the face of all that hate.

To be clear, we’re not talking about female villains. Male villains get just as much hate. It’s fine if you hate Bellatrix Lestrange or Dolores Umbridge, you’re supposed to. (I personally stan for Bella, but I realize that wasn’t the authorial intent.) This is about people hating Hermione, Ginny and Luna, but loving Harry, Ron and Neville. This is about how ambiguous male antiheroes, like Snape, Zuko, or pretty much any male vampire protagonist can get away with walking that fine line between good and evil and not only remain sympathetic, but be even more beloved for how ~tortured~ he is, but when a female character is morally gray that bitch has to die.

So you can’t tell me it’s okay that you hate Sansa because you also hate Joffrey and he’s a dude. They’re not comparable. It isn’t even comparable if you pick a female antihero. Let’s do this apples to apples, here.

We all know that fandom does this. We all know that it’s fucked up and symptomatic of internalized sexism. What’s really fucking weird about it, though, is that the women doing this hating often aren’t ignorant. These are feminists. These are women who can go on meta-analyses of the writing. Some will hide behind pseudo-feminist reasons for their hate—oh, it’s the writing, we just aren’t given strong female characters! (I saw this used for the women of AtLA: Katara, Toph, Azula, et al. This was about when I just backed away slowly because I know a lost cause when I see it.) I’ve seen women who denied being sexist, but couldn’t name a single female character they liked. And it’s always that the female characters aren’t good enough, even when they obviously have a double standard, and they’re measuring women on an impossible scale full of contradictions and no-win binds, while the men are just embraced and loved pretty much for existing.

The reaction nearly every time one of these women is called out is not to say, “Huh, you may have a point, I should examine the way I judge and process women’s actions more closely,” but an insistence of their feminism, followed by a more detailed description of why that particular woman is terrible and she hates her, as if the whole point were not that fandom is already oversaturated with that kind of hate, and as if the person doing the calling out were not already 110% done with that bullshit.

Particularly telling is that male-dominated corners of fandom do not have this problem. They fetishize, they objectify, they ignore. They don’t hate like this.

We know it happens. What I want to know is WHY.

Theories follow below the cut.

Read More

double the hate for WoC characters

triple the hate for black women characters

seriously

as good as this post in places, no examination of female character hate is complete without the intersection of race and how it impacts misogyny

how white privilege plays out vis a vis WOC and the differences in perception this creates in audiences

how in nearly every fandom that has a black female character, that character is almost always the most reviled and hated (see: Jones, Martha)

how white femininity is privileged and femininity is denied to Black WOC

how white feminist narratives about empowerment regarding female characters and what constitutes a Strong Female Character can be oppressive to WOC characters (ie: white feminists bashing WOC for not being “tough” enough or for prioritizing romance in their story arcs)

how WOC characters are held to standards that their white counterparts aren’t (ie: everything said here about how male characters get a pass for certain actions where women are raked across the coals applies equally to white female characters vs. WOC)

with WOC characters it is not just their femaleness that is the problem and bringing up WOC characters in these kinds of posts without addressing that is not actually helpful

it is all well and good to discuss these things but i don’t have time for these kinds of prescriptivist posts that don’t include race in their analysis and treat “female character hate” as though all female characters are hated equally or even for the same reasons

all female characters are not hated equally, people

and there is a reason for that

and that needs to be part of this conversation or the conversation is bullshit

Yes.

iceepr1ncess: i want to make a tshirt that says “reverse racism and sexism do not exist but the...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:04:19 -0700

iceepr1ncess:

i want to make a tshirt that says “reverse racism and sexism do not exist but the clitoris does and u should focus on that”

felistella: ughwhocares: jenjay: washingtonpoststyle: jerismi...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:49:11 -0700

felistella:

ughwhocares:

jenjay:

washingtonpoststyle:

jerismithready:

I just fell in love with New Zealand.

After passing a marriage equality bill, the Parliament spontaneously broke into the Maori love song “Pokarekare ana.”

Lawmaking is usually messy at its best and downright grisly at its worst. When it’s beautiful, like this, it should be celebrated.

(Hat tip to @robertflorence, Scottish comedian extraordinaire, for linking the video on Twitter.)

U.S. Congressmen: Please incorporate more singing into the running of the U.S. Government.

Congress would be better if there were more flowers, singing, and ladies wearing fabulous hats while voting.

I cried

Perfect.

Chills!

FAVORITE MOVIE.

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 23:59:14 -0700

FAVORITE MOVIE.

riotclitshave: David Bowie and Tilda Swinton

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 20:58:43 -0700

riotclitshave:

David Bowie and Tilda Swinton

Photo

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:07:39 -0700