#because women's oversexualization is normal and to be expected.

[demontobee]

Good Omens is queering TV/storytelling - part 1: GAZE

I would argue that part of why Good Omens is so refreshingly queer is because it does not cater to the male gaze (which centers around the preferences - aesthetic, romantic, sexual, visual, logical, emotional, political ... - of mainly white men in positions of power):

no oversexualization of groups or types of people: Women or characters that could be read as female presenting are not overly sexualized. In fact, some of them are shown to be grimy, slimy and not sexual at all. All of them are real characters and not just cardboard-cutout on-screen versions of male misogynistic fantasies. They portray real people with real people problems. They are human, or exempt from our categories when portraying angels or demons. There are no overly sexualized bodies in general (as has so far also often been the case with young gay men, PoC, etc.), no fetishization of power imbalances, and not exclusively youthful depiction of love and desire.

sex or sexual behavior is not shown directly (yet): All imagery and symbolism of sex and sexuality is used not to entice the audience but is very intimately played out between characters, which makes it almost uncomfortable to watch (e.g., Aziraphale being tempted to eat meat, Crowley watching Aziraphale eat, the whole gun imagery).

flaunting heteronormativity: Throughout GO but especially GO2, there is very little depiction of heterosexual/romantic couples; most couples are very diverse and no one is making a fuss about it. There is no fetishization of bodies or identities. Just people (and angels and demons) being their beautiful selves (or trying to).

age: Even though Neil Gaiman explained that Crowley and Aziraphale are middle-aged because the actors are, I think it is also queering the idea of romance, love and desire existing mainly within youthful contexts. Male gaze has taught us that young people falling and being in love is what we have to want to see, and any depiction of love that involves people being not exactly young anymore is either part of a fetishized power imbalance (often with an older dude using his power to prey on younger folx) or presents us with marital problems, loss of desire, etc. – all with undertones of decay and patronizing sympathy. Here, however, we get a beautifully crafted, slow-burn, and somehow super realistic love story that centers around beings older than time and presenting as humans in their 50s figuring out how to deal with love. It makes them both innocent and experienced, in a way that is refreshing and heartbreaking and unusual and real.

does not (exclusively) center around romantic/sexual love: I don’t know if this is a gaze point exactly but I feel like male gaze and resulting expectations of what a love story should look like are heavily responsible for our preoccupation with romantic/sexual love in fiction – the “boy gets girl” type of story. And even though, technically, GO seems to focus on a romantic love story in the end, it is also possible to read this relationship but also the whole show as centering around a kind of love that goes beyond the narrow confines of our conditioned boxed-in thinking. It seems to depict a love of humanity and the world and the universe and just the ineffability of existence as a whole.

disability as beautiful and innate to existence: Disability is represented amongst angels by the extremely cool Saraqael and by diversely disabled unnamed angels in the Job minisode. Representation of disability is obviously super important in its own right, but is also queers what we perceive as aesthetically and ontologically "normal". Male gaze teaches us that youth and (physical and mental) health are the desirable standard and everything else is to be seen as a deviance, a mistake. By including disability among the angels, beings that have existed before time and space, the show clearly states that disability is a beautiful and innate part of existence.

gender is optional/obsolete: Characters like Crowley, Muriel and others really undermine the (visual and aesthetic) boundaries of gender and the black-and-white thinking about gender that informs male gaze. Characters cannot be identfied simply as (binary) men or women anymore just by looking at them or by interpreting their personalities or behaviors. Most characters in GO, and especially the more genderqueer ones, display a balance of feminine and masculine traits as well as indiosyncracies that dissolve the gender binary.

Feel free to add your own thoughts on this in the comments or tags!

#good omens s2 #good omens #good omens 2 #go2 #good omens meta #ineffable husbands #crowley #aziraphale #queer #queer TV #male gaze #thank you neil gaiman for cranking up the queer #neil gaiman #thank you neil gaiman

[thesilverlady]

Hi! So I've been thinking about this for some time now, it seems to me like GRRM often exagerates the misogyny women suffered in medieval times.

It's not that women were happy and living in utopia but from reading about different historical societies and time periods in comparison to what he is writing it looks super exaggerated and women often suffer a lot more than what it would be like in comparison to real life.

Maybe it's just me and I don't want to sound mean..but it's starting to feel weird...for example there's a lot of women that have died from the birthing bed, a big number and although it happened it wasn't like every hour a woman died giving birth to a child. Another thing that bothers me it's when really young characters start having sex (Aemma, Daenerys, Viserys II....) It's super bizarre since yes of course women tended to be younger but and I'm pretty sure that no one was advising to have sex with a 13 year old child (there are cases I'm sure but normally it was frowned upon). Even politically women are more restrained ... I don't know maybe I'm seeing gohsts where there are none 😂.

it's definitely a valid subject to criticize and it's been something I've been conflicted over myself.

grrm is generally a. fantastic author; he knows how to write characters, worldbuilding, dialogue and how to play with themes.

With that being said, I can totally understand your feelings on the subject.

On the one hand, you're right, the whole "died in childbirth" is. just a very convenient, easy way to get rid off a female character while adding a tragedy to the mix. On the other hand.... some of these characters were simply not meant to be around.

I think he has definitely tried to add some elements around childbirth death to make it slightly different each time. Like, in f&b the difference between Alyssa Velaryon and Daella Targaryen who both died in childbirth is that Alyssa was at a quite old age and had complications from her pregnancy and her husband and maesters completely disregarded her health and basically sacrificed her to get that child out (for context: her dead was basically what Aemma had in the show. they copied it from that part of the story) In her tragic death, we see how shitty her husband was and the power maesters have over life. We do get her other daughter, Rhaena, rightfully calling out Rogar Baratheon's callous actions.

With Daella her death., while similar is a bit different because her issue was that she was waaay too young. Her mother, Alysanne felt guilty after her death and even wondered if it would have been so much for Daella to stay a child a while longer before pushing her to marry.

Both fall.victims to the patriarchy that is established in Westeros, in the belief that a woman's duty is to be a wife and a mother and a childbirth death while sad is noble. I won't analyze each childbirth death we see 'cause that would take forever - but I do think they all kinda serve a theme that has been existing all throughout the asoiaf series.

As for the age.... listen, i know it's uncomfortable for everyone but I think that's purposely done. Later in the series dany does think. of her old 13 yo self as a child so George doesn't pretend that she wasn't.

Were her descriptions in the first book oversexualized? Sure

But as for the age factor, I study history and cultures at uni and you'd be surprised at the age range young girls were thought to be suited for marriage and childbirth. You gotta consider multiple ethinicies, cultures, social norms, and not to mention life expectancy which played a huge factor in this.

George takes inspiration for all of this. The series is not meant to be a realistic portrayal.

And while I constantly think about the pro and cons about the way George writes his female characters, i don't see enough prase nowadays about how he writes the vulnerability of girlhood, or motherly love, or the caging feeling of being a woman who lives in such a restraining society.

As a man George does a surprisingly amazing job at describing these feelings. And while, I definitely think we should be objective and consider the good, the bad and the ugly with how he writes woman, the good heavily outweigh the bad

#ask reply #asoiaf critical #maybe I'm desensitized about the age thing because I've spent 3 years learning some shocking historical social norms that used to exist but #I honestly think George is approaching the subject as well as he can. it's always left in the air that marry and bedding someone this young #is tragic and not good. It's not really romanticised y'know? #I do think he's worth of some lashes for some subjects. Like the whole dany/drogo thing could have been better written but whatever

[lizziethat]

can i ask you a question, maybe i am being a bit too sensitive here so thats why i wanted to ask ur opinion. is it me or r they oversexualizing the girls in OBX? like most of the time their in crop tops and hot shorts. and i get it its suppose to give a beach-y vibe and all but i am telling u i was rewatching some scenes and i can see the mic wire they have on because of how little they wear. just a thought. feel free to call me out on my narrow mindedness if necessary.

This is a tricky answer because I do feel Hollywood in general is oversexualized, and it's sometimes very hard to know where the line between "I want this" and "this is expected of me" resides. It's probably something even the actresses won't be able to tell you, at least not now -- and it might also be something that changes by the day, the month, or even the year.

I don't even think it's just the girls, either. It's worse with women always, but we get our gratuitous shirt-off content with the boys, too. The show has moved a little away from 100% crop tops and hot shorts -- we've seen them in jeans and longer pants more! That might be the actresses having a little more control over what they wear.

So, the answer is probably somewhere in the middle. Do I think OBX is doing it? Yes, just like Hollywood normally does. Do I think it's worse than other shows or an outlier in this respect? Not really, and it seems willing to adjust in this regard, which feels like a good sign.

#outer banks

[bad-comic-art]

have to agree with last anon on the tits issue, if not on the clothing bit. her breasts were not just drawn to be more realistic, but greatly reduced in size, which feels Not Great. im sure the person who did the redraw didn't *mean* to enforce negative ideas about having a large chest, and their drawing is certainly better than the original, but you can't dismiss this criticism out of hand.

fundamentally these aren’t real women, the artist chooses what they look like, this is what Power Girls boobs originally looked like 

kinda big yea but nowhere near what they are today, but over the years artist have drawn them larger and larger because they find it attractive and to sell more books, it wasn’t done for body positive, are big breasts over sexualzed in our society today? yes absolutely, by these comics! I mean can you honestly look at this and think “ahh finally representation, this artist’s goal was to make me feel seen”

and beyond that there’s absolutely no way she’s wearing a bra in that and like I and a few other people have said a sports bra (or even something like a compression bra) can greatly reduce your breast size when wearing one, here for example is playmate and MMA fighter Latasha Marzolla in and out of a sportsbra

and the reason she’s wearing one is because she was fighting! and here’s Pearl Gonzalez (on the left) who prior to this was actually for a second banned from fighting in the UFC because she had gotten BREAST IMPLANTS

heres another with out the sports bra on the left and with on the right

if you look at any female UFC or MMA  fighter you’re going to see tight highly controlled sportsbras, and you know what? I’m fine with Power Girl having large breasts but it’s completely unrealistic to expect PG to fight with those things slapping around, you want to draw her busty when she’s in her normal clothes? chilling around the house or even just out of costume that’s totally fine but having a literal “boob window” is goof and and can’t image anyone coming with a good faith argument defending it

like I said do I think large breasts are oversexualized? yes absolutely and this is where it’s happening 

#I've gotten a lot of asks (most just agreeing with me or things that would sprout into other conversations) and I kinda don't like spamming #answer beyond like yea I agree so this is probably gonna be the last thing I saw on this tonight so if you sent an ask I didn't answer I'm #Anonymous

[bisluthq]

Hey! I'm fairly new here and I have a pretty uncommon take on Kaylor. But I just wanna start off by saying I try my best to be as supportive of LGBT people as possible and if they're both bisexual, then I would be 100% okay with that! I'm not trying to "defend their heterosexuality" or anything, I think that's really weird

Okay, so my personal theory is that Kaylor did happen, but that Taylor and Karlie are both straight. I know that might sound contradictory, but I say this based on my own personal experiences based on how I am with my best friend. I think Karlie and Taylor's relationship might have been similar in some ways to ours

Right, so I'm straight and I'm not into women in the gay kind of way (but it's completely cool that some girls are), and I have this roommate who's gorgeous. Really gorgeous, she's like a 10/10 "I would sell my kidney to look like you" kind of girl. She's very attractive, she has like tan skin and long legs and gorgeous brown hair and pretty eyes and nice lips and just like… she's just very good looking. I'm definitely jealous of her body, I won't even pretend I'm not 😪 I lowkey hate her because of it (jk)

We've been living together since not long before COVID started, and we're very good friends. There were three of us before, but our other roommate went back home to stay with her parents until in person classes are back on and we agreed to it and worked something out because she has really bad anxiety so we understood her reasoning for it

Anyway so it's just been us two and because we've been at home a lot during this time instead of out for most of the day like before, we've gotten to know each other a lot better and have become a lot closer. We were already friends from before, but now we're like super close besties, we've been hanging out a lot together and playing board games, watching movies, helping each other with essays, just having long conversations about anything and everything, etc

Like it's been so nice having a best friend that I can be this close to now because I haven't had a best friend since I was a kid

So my friend and I were having like a conversation last year about how hard it's been in quarantine not being able to go on dates and how we miss kissing people, and so we decided to just like, make out for fun you know. I mean, there's not really anything that's inherently romantic or sexual about making out, that's just society that says that. But tbh I think making out with your friends if you want to should be normalized, it's fun and it can even be emotional sometimes. It's not that different from hugging people

After a couple of weeks or so, I think we got bored of just making out with each other and decided to like, fully hook up. It started off because we were modelling lingerie for each other for banter and were pretending we were each other's runway judges and then I think we just decided to hook up with each other as like part of the whole "game". I can't remember who initiated it now, I think it might have been me as a joke lol

Like just in a platonic way for fun, as a kind of substitute until we can go back into society

And tbh I always expected hooking up with a woman to be like mediocre and boring and awkward, but although it was a bit hard to get the hang of at first and there was a learning curve, it's actually very enjoyable. Like I was very surprised actually at how hot it can be, I think I can maybe see why bisexual women and lesbians like doing it

Anyway we both liked it and we just carried on hooking up on the regular and it's been like 8 months now and tbh I just think it's very sweet and heartwarming, like it actually makes me feel a little emotional how we're close enough and care about each other enough that we can even help each other out with the physical intimacy side of things so that we don't get sexually frustrated while we're stuck in lockdown

I just think it's really cool and we even sleep in the same bed most of the time now because tbh what's the point in sleeping alone when you can sleep in the same bed as someone else? It's nicer, like you can cuddle and stuff

Anyway, I think that maybe Kaylor's relationship might have been similar. I think they're both straight but they became really close friends in a short space of time, and that their friendship was so intense that it became physical but in a platonic way

I think lesbians and bisexual women are amazing and I have so much respect for you guys for accepting yourselves in a society that tries to erase you, and I think there definitely needs to be more wlw representation on TV and in movies

But at the same time, I would also like there to be more close female friendships like the one that me and my friend have where you can just talk about everything together and do things that society usually reserves for romantic partners, but in a platonic way. Because female friendship is really important and beautiful, whether that's between straight women like me and my friend who I think is probably straight too, or between queer women because one thing I've learnt during my short time on this blog is how queer women can have very close platonic friendships with other queer women too

I think society just has overly strict ideas of "straight" and "gay". Like for some people, they would hear about two women sleeping together and think "Oh that's gay", but not necessarily because straight women can enjoy sleeping with other women too, like it's normal 🤷‍♀️

I think it's just a result of women being a lot more physically beautiful than men are, like straight women really got the short end of the stick tbh compared to straight men

I also think it's because women are so oversexualized in the media, and obviously straight girls see that too and so we sort of internalize that attraction to women because we're so used to seeing women being presented in a sexual way? Except it's not real attraction with us like how it is for queer girls

Like I'm very much "attracted" to my friend, she's genuinely stunning and just very hot tbh. But I still identify as straight because it's just a case of what I mentioned above, it's a "fake" attraction. And also because men are afraid to compliment other men because it's seen as "gay", but women can be fully confident in their sexuality and still recognize other women's beauty and sex appeal. You see it all the time in instagram comments, and I really love how we're all so supportive of each other like that

Like I can be fully confident in my sexuality and yet still say that some women like my friend are gorgeous as hell and also 100 times better looking than most men I've seen. I'm very much obsessed with some women's appearances but in a platonic way

And I just love the concept of "girl crushes" and I think that from a feminism viewpoint, it's beautiful that we're focusing on other girls and showing love towards other girls too, instead of just to men who, let's be real, don't even fully appreciate it half of the time

I am going to be sad when we all have to return to life as usual and my friend and I won't be able to spend as much time together anymore. I'm dreading it tbh, I don't want it to end yet. And it really sucks that the physical side of our friendship will probably have to stop too once our other roommate comes back because I think she'd definitely misunderstand the situation and think it's something different than it actually is if she ever saw us kissing or something. I really am going to miss it a lot though, I really like how things currently are and it's just really really nice and I don't want it to change :/

Btw I'm sorry if I sounded fetishistic or offensive with any of this, I just get a bit jealous sometimes that you guys get to date girls and we're just stuck with men. Honestly if it wasn't for all of the homophobia and the struggles that you all have to face and the fact that it would feel disrespectful to the LGBT community, I would probably really wish I could change my sexuality to be bisexual or gay instead because I just think women are better. Sometimes I really do wish I was into women in that way because dating girls just sounds so much more appealing to me (in a non fetishizing weird way) but unfortunately I'm stuck with dating men 🤦‍♀️ But I also know I'm lucky and privileged to be straight even though most men are mediocre and kinda gross and I don't mean to be disrespectful because I know you all have to face homophobia and other LGBT difficulties and it really sucks, people are awful. There's nothing wrong with women dating women or men dating men at all, society is just ugly and bigoted

Anyway, does anybody else have a similar sort of take on Kaylor where they think they could have both been straight and just had a very close friendship with a physical side to it? I think it would explain a lot. But like I said, this is just a theory of mine based on my own situation, and I'm also open to the idea that it was an actual relationship and that they're both into women for real, not just fake "into women" like I am.

Also pls feel free to call me out if I accidentally said anything offensive towards LGBT people, I tried my best but if I made a mistake anywhere pls let me know and I'll avoid it next time!

You’re not offensive. Please stop apologizing. And we’re gonna come back to the Kaylor stuff another time because... Honey. You and I need to have a conversation for a bit.

So firstly, I’m not trying to like “diagnose” you and at the end of the day it’s your choice what you want to call yourself but... tbh you might not be straight. Sexuality is fluid not static and exists on a spectrum not in absolutes. It’s not like it’s straight, 50/50 bi, gay and you’re born knowing and there’s no room for anything else. That’s not true. There’s a lot of room in between all of these and labels can change over time. We’re people, not cereal brands, and sometimes we don’t even KNOW the word for what we might be. I’m tagging a tag for you from when we asked people to share their label journeys for you to see. It’s not simple or easy and it’s not just because of external stuff - it’s because figuring this out internally is HARD. If you found yourself having such an intense friendship it became physical, repeatedly, you liked it a lot, you still sleep in the same bed and continue to share all your thoughts and you don’t want any of that to end... I’m not sure you’re Kinsey 0. And I think you might lowkey have a girlfriend dude. 

You can obviously prefer men but like... hun I reaaallly don’t think you’re completely straight.

Also: it’s okay to say “I see myself winding up with a man and this is a situationship for right now!” but that doesn’t make you straight because again, sexuality is a spectrum and you can manifest a particular kind of endgame while experiencing other things along the way.

But here’s where you really got me: “most men are mediocre and kinda gross” and “women being a lot more physically beautiful than men are, like straight women really got the short end of the stick tbh compared to straight men” because that’s the kind of thing I used to say in my Bi 1.0 era before I ID’d as a lesbian for a bit and before Harry Styles (KING 🥺) made me bi for real. Hun, no. Straight women like men. Tbh BI women like men. I genuinely, unironically, find Harry and Timmy and Matt Smith to be sexy beasts and I would do dirty things to the former two but maybe not the latter irl in 2021 but yes also him if I could be on that Spain trip with him and Karen where they got sloshed and which I think of often. These men are genuinely fucking beautiful to me in the same way Taylor is and Di Silvers is (okay she’s prettier than all of them but like same ~vibe) and like Megan Thee Stallion is and Indira Varma in everything but especially GOT and Gillian Anderson and Keira Knightley. Like those women are HOT to me and SO. ARE. THE. MEN. 

Straight women find SO MANY DUDES hot. So many. Starting from objectively pretty options I just cannot personally understand like Chris Evans all the way through to bitches who are outchea simping for wrestlers and Cole Sprouse. Do I understand? No. But like... that’s straight girl culture and ours is not to judge. 

If you’re struggling to find men hot then... you might be gay.

Also, I’m not sure what you mean by “fake attraction”. Like queer women - especially femme women which I assume you very much are - experience the same kinds of feelings straight girls do. We have women we want to be like and look like and find enviable (me and Oenone Forbat) and women we find aesthetically gorgeous (me and Anya Taylor Joy) and we have extremely close female friends who we can spend hours on end spilling our guts to - as you say female friendships are truly special - and without going into personal people that you don’t know, that’s me and Cam and Sim right? I literally talk to them for hours. Like those are not gay feelings. And yes we can chat about those kinds of feelings with straight girls and call them “girl crushes” and not immediately get “caught out” because they experience this exact shit too.

But here’s the thing. They never do and I don’t want in the cases above to fuck these women. It’s not sexual.

The moment I can actually imagine fucking the women in question that’s... gay. 

Like it’s not “fake attraction” it’s literally just gay. That’s how we desire women. We want to fuck them. Not all women. Not always. But sometimes we want to get under or on top of one and just really truly fucking make each other moan with pleasure.

I have no idea if Karlie or Taylor are into women. They could both literally be straight. I have no idea.

But I have a better idea about you.

Hun, you’re fucking your roommate/best friend and don’t want to stop.

You’re not “into women”.

You’re into this woman.

And possibly into women more generally.

So I know it’s weird to have to be the one to tell you this, and if you want to keep chatting via anon or in my DMs or if you want me to try collate resources for you from around the web but...

Like.

Dude.

You’re a whole ass part of the rainbow.

Welcome to the community you thought you weren’t a part of earlier today 🌈 ❤️

It’s nice here, sure there’s homophobia, but at least we get to fuck girls and man is it good.

#agony aunat #share your label journey #roommate anon <3

[300iqprower]

Did you mean Summer Murasaki's 1st ascension? I personally like that one the best it fits her design and also it's actually her swimsuit. You may not know this but the other two ascensions for her are her cosplaying characters from Raita's ongoing h-doujin series. That is also the reason why he gave Murasaki her love of cosplay. To justify her being in colorful outfits you would expect Sei to wear. Btw, og Murasaki aside 3rd ascension has decent designs. It fits her librarian theme.

Yeah…that sounds like something Raita would do.

When i say 1st ascension i generally mean base, but realized why that’s confusing so i stopped describing them by asc and just say first/second/final outfit. First = base, Second = first ascension up, Final = Asc3

I think conceptually Murasaki’s first 2 work nice as well, and summer murasaki’s first outfit is definitely not remotely as bad as I’d expect Summer Raikou literally one of the worst designs in the game i swear to christ but anything with “Raita Anatomy” just distracts way too much for me to actually like it. Murasaki’s Librarian outfit is also a complete visual clusterfuck, in no small part BECAUSE of the Raita Anatomy. Summer Murasaki’s base is probably the closest i’ve seen to normal of those that have it on display.

Like, to be clear, issue i have with Raita isn’t oversexualization; I have a 90 10/10/10 Samba Quetz. Same goes for how with Zenobia I wouldn’t care if they made her horny outfit a costume because it’s the literal objectification and slander against her historical self that upsets me. The issue I have is that, specifically with how Raita draws women, it’s sexualized to the point of distracting/grossing me out because THAT IS NOT HOW ORGANS WORK.

#fgo #fuck fgo #never thought i'd get an ask

[rnegitsune]

tw // oversexualization

tbh i am actually sick of the twitter babymetal community, and i say this as a person who is actively doing things for the community. the xenophobia, the misogyny, the anti-blackness, and most importantly the homophobia. it's so sad to see how i make a "wlw recognizes wlw and moa looks a lil familiar" joke and suddenly 4-9 angry old white men are calling me a stupid dyke and telling me to take the post down because, and i quote, "m0a looks like she loves getting pounded by cock" .....like are you not ashamed? not to mention i got called the n word for defending suzuka, and saying "she's not self-centered but she knows her worth" from some 49 year old neckbeard. and the xenophobia is fucking CRAZY. momoko getting fatshamed by some cishet white dude on the daily should not be so normalizes on that platform. i fucking hate it here. im so glad i can come to tumblr and have a place where people aren't as disgusting.

jfc ok idk where to even start so first I'll say I am so sorry you've had such a shitty experience just trying to make jokes and enjoy yourself as a fan, the fact that these fuckers have said that shit to you is appalling and I hope you have taken time away bc you do not deserve to hear that

second...yeah this fandom is truly overrun by men like that yet anyone, like yourself, attempting to call out all the bigotry gets slammed w hate. It really is ironic that these are the dudes crying about how nice metal fans are and idz but then 1 person makes a wlw joke or points out the creepy behavior of some men and suddenly they all attack. Not to mention whenever you try to talk about your negative experiences the other half of these dudes call you a liar or say you're exaggerating; it's exhausting and it's a trash thing to go through. And on top of it all seeing them go after a teenaged member of the group? They really don't have any shame at all whatsoever

Babymetal is a group of young women so the fandom being absolutely full of shitty men is unfortunately expected and I have no idea what to do other than continue to speak out and amplify other negative experiences like what you've relayed here. Like I'm white myself so some of this isn't something I can experience but I have heard from other people about racist remarks like what you've been through as well as just the fact that the fandom is indeed bulk men and bulk white men on top of that

And all I've personally seen on twitter is garbage and all the experiences I've read about from people active there are also garbage so it seems it's just a cesspool; like idk what to even do other than tell people to be safe, block generously, and take time far away from twitter regularly

To reiterate, this fandom continues to be a male dominated hellhole, but I do appreciate you sharing what you've dealt with, as well as you actively doing your best to change the toxicity; I hope you've been having a better time recently (also the moa looks familiar joke is great)

#anon #replies #fucking hell this makes me sick #i hope anon is ok tho #also i hope i worded this ok #over sexualization tw #homophobia tw #racism tw #if i need to tag anything someone pls tell me #wlw deserve to just like this band ffs

[pharahlesbian]

Hello! This isn't meant to be hate, I'm just genuinely confused as fuck. Why do you hate ace people? And to the point that you put it in your bio? If there's some personal reason, like one of them hurt you, you don't have to be specific or anything. Do you just think that they're not lgbt? I'm sorry, I just really don't understand. Your problem is...we don't think people look all too fuckable?

well lol the issue here is your last statement. you really think the average non ace person is out here looking at someone they just met and being like “wow that person is so FUCKABLE!”

i think youll find that the majority of ppl will think someone is cute, get to know them, become friends, and then eventually have sex. some ppl do this process quicker, some dont.

i think its really damaging that many asexuals seem to have the opinion that everyone else is so sexed up and ready to fuck at first sight like its a damn pokemon battle that they look at themselves and theyre like well damn im not like that, guess i must be ace. when the reality is that they just have a different approach to sexual attraction and eventually sex itself, like literally every single person on earth. thats why u get soooo many ppl who at some point were ace before realizing they werent. and why a HUGE majority of asexuals are female. i saw a stat page once, it was wild. women are already so oversexualized in media and society, that of course an impressionable young woman is gonna grow into their body and feel extremely uncomfortable, may even feel violated. so sex is immediately off the table.

i agree with a lot of asexuals whose agenda focuses on the de sexualization of our society, and the destigmatization of not desiring sex. i fully believe in those things. but i do not believe asexuality should be an identity. i feel as though that is regressive. not wanting sex should be as normal as not wanting pineapple on pizza. u shouldnt need a new identity for that. anybody can have that preference. and preferably in the comfort of their own bedroom with their partner. since no one needs to know the details of your sex life lol.

so yeah i dont think asexuals are lgbt, but the issue runs deeper than that for me. and asexuals advocating endlessly to be a part of the lgbt community is a step in SUCH a wrong direction that it frustrates me. that should not be your societal focus lol. advocate for destigmatization, advocate against the sexualization of every little thing in the media. hell, advocate for sex education. not wanting sex and also learning how to say no should be paramount in sex ed. its unfortunate how horrible sex ed can be.

the point is, yall want the wrong stuff and its very sad and annoying. i would love for our society to become less sex obsessed. i myself dont need sex to live and breathe. and that is NORMAL. u are not demi ace for having sex once a month with your partner. just an example. but yeah it just angers me to no end, but no one ever hears me out because everyone just wanna be mad and they wanna be special so bad and over focus on the identity aspect and get their rocks off calling me pathetic while hiding behind an anonymous face (lol the irony) and never ever think of the bigger picture

anyway im done. i dont expect u to understand really because no one ever wants to. and the only change that will ever come about is corporations will start realizing how vocal aces are and will start using yall in their advertising and youll all be like “oreos for the win!!” and meanwhile 14 year old girls will still be thinking theyre asexual because theyre not busty oily 27 year olds surrounded by men in a coors light ad. im out ✌️

#this why im an aphobic queen #ask #ace shit

[yoyoblogss]

personal experiences

Hi guys, it’s me again Yoanna, coming back to overshare my personal life experiences on the internet. In this blog, we’re going to be speaking about the sexualization of POC, specifically POC women, as well as stereotypes we beautiful people face daily and how they correlate with one another. I’ll be mentioning a few articles and a video to talk about these topics. Using these sources, I’ll be answering a question I came across a few days ago, which four of the many voices we encountered in this class speaks to you? How and Why? Let's start with sexualization, sexualization is making someone feel like a sexual object making something sexual. Every day we are being sexualized by the media and capitalized off of it. It’s how the world works, it’s how the media is always money hungry and will sexualize anyone to increase their dollars in their bank account and will shapeshift how people view one another. One day, we love skinny girls, and one day we love big girls specifically with a tiny chub. One day we like men with a dad bod and one day we like men with hard rock abs. Every day, the media makes it hard for us to love ourselves. So let me start with the JLO video, it's one of her many popular songs called Waiting for Tonight. During an assignment I had to do for class, we talked about exoticness, fetishization, and how sexualized this video was. The director himself put jungles in the background to show how exotic JLO is and the women of color in this video. He stuck to the stereotypes of POC women and said yes! Put a jungle in the background and women from different countries with unique features to show how exotic they are! This music video is confined to the day to day stereotypes of POC by including beautiful women from different backgrounds and showing that they’re comfortable in their skin but some might not understand, the way I interpreted the music video, especially the ending was the sexualization of JLO in the water dancing. The director knew that if he showed this part of the video, it would attract more audience because it’s a beautiful Latina in the water even though it was just JLO simply dancing to her music, the outside world would interpret it as the director did. Every time a woman steps out in her clothes or posts a bikini photo confident within herself, others would always degrade them or oversexualize them for no reason. When a woman shows a bit of skin, she’s immediately called the worst names and looked upon differently which SHOULDN'T even be a thing. In our day in age with the upcoming app Tiktok, when anyone posts a video themselves showing a bit of skin, the comments flood with “I’m looking respectfully” which is an odd saying to me because what is the point of saying that? Some people even dare to say “I’m looking disrespectfully”, which is so weird to me and odd because it’s a form of degradation and basically initiating that it’s okay and normal to sexualize them, if I'm looking “respectfully” or “disrespectfully”. Trust me, whenever I post a TikTok with some sort of revealing clothes, people run to the comments and say the same thing to me. I don’t like it, I don't like how normalized it is to do this, it makes me very uncomfortable and I want to hide forever from the internet. In Aparicio, Maria Conchita Alonso described how confined she was to the stereotypes that were made because of her “exotic background”. She talks about how she’s always seen as an object and “half out of her mind”, which in other words, crazy, which is exactly what these stereotypes describe her as. The second you search up “exotic women”, on google and look through their images, all you see is POC women with the caption, “beautiful sexy exotic women” basically listing them as objects for people to stare at and imagine the unimaginable. POC women always struggle with these stereotypes and being seen as “foreign” objects. I feel like what Alonso was saying completely describes how I feel. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been oversexualized and experienced what it’s like to feel like an object. In middle school, I developed earlier than the kids in my grade, guys would make comments about my ass and boobs, slap my ass and boob, and I didn’t understand what everything meant until I started growing older and more knowledgeable. It was wrong but I was too naive. As I started getting older and appreciating the body I was given, full of self-love, I would wear clothes that would accentuate my body and it felt good. I felt beautiful and sexy for myself, no one else. In high school, guys would also make comments about me, calling me sexy, saying sexual things to me at all times, and would talk about having intercourse with me behind my back and to my face. One time a guy looked at me in the face and said, “Suck me.” I was in shock that someone I saw as a friend, nothing more, would say that to me in a public setting, literally in the middle of my English class. It made me feel like an object and sexualized. When I used to be on dating apps, men's sadly first pickup line was, “I’ve never seen anyone so exotic”. Getting called exotic made me feel like I was a special drink they made at resorts that are far out of my budget. It was a weird feeling and something I hope to never feel again. Whenever I would speak Arabic in public, I would have everyone's jaw especially the whites to the ground and them continuously asking me to say something else, teach them a word, or talk about how different it is. During my course, we also stumbled upon identity and how it talks about how they're restricted to these stereotypes placed upon them. In “A Conversation with Latinos on Race”, talks about how they had to change their traditions and who they are to become more accepted in America. Gregory, one of the people in the video talking about his experience, spoke about how he was automatically labeled as an African American because of his skin and voice, which he isn’t. This spoke to me because coming from an immigrant family as a first-generation, it was hard learning American traditions and becoming more socially accepted so I as well felt like I needed to change. My family predominantly speaks Arabic in the house, so it was already a struggle to learn how to speak English. I dressed differently, ate differently, and acted differently in school. I barely ate any traditional food at home anymore when I was a kid because I forced my mom to make American food. No one ever identified me as an Egyptian. Some would assume I was Latina and would automatically speak to me in Spanish which led to me awkwardly cutting them off and saying “I don’t speak Spanish” and walk away. Some would assume I was Indian, but never where I’m actually from until they hear me speak Arabic. In “Light in the Dark”, by Gloria Anzaldua, she mentions how there are always certain expectations on people's race and we can’t control how people perceive us in America. Coming from an Egyptian who’s from Queens, Astoria, predominantly full of people who speak Arabic or different dialects of Arabic, there are many assumptions about them. The assumptions would be that specifically, your father was a cab driver, owns a hookah lounge, has a halal cart, or a deli worker. In school, I would hear kids making fun of Arab kids in my class about how their dad is a cab driver and barely makes money. For some time, I didn’t like admitting that my dad was a cab driver or worked in a deli. Listening to kids being made fun of for their parent's occupations made me scared to be in that same situation. It would take me a really long time to admit that my dad was a cab driver, it felt like my mouth just couldn’t even open and utter the words. I should’ve never felt embarrassed to admit that he was a cab driver or a deli worker because my dad is a very hard worker and did what he can for us to survive but that’s what assumptions do to people. You can’t control how people perceive you. All of these articles plus the video touched me and made me rethink my past experiences. I hope you guys enjoyed this analysis of my experiences and hope it made people with similar experiences like mine feel less alone in this cruel world. Remember, self-love is the best love.

[bloodfcst-a]

alright, so. i beat remake last weekend, but i didn’t want to come out with my newfound yufi information + meta right off the bat. i think this is an appropriate time to do so now, though. naturally, i’ll tag as spoilers, but if you need anything else, let me know.

also, my verdict? i am so glad i went into this blind, without any hype or expectations or people from fandom whining about it. yet again, i am so happy + i had an incredibly joyous experience.  this game fed me + also took over my life in a way i’ve not been possessed in some time so like......... good for it.

also no, i truly don’t miss hearing everyone’s hullabaloo +  i don’t wanna hear ur complaints of “ it didn’t say when part 2 is ” so like miss me with that. 

also warning: if u didn’t know already, fandom is WILD towards y.uffie for some reason and i also addressed that, so like if you’re from vii fandom u might seriously wanna read this bc... it’ll be pertinent to u understanding my feelings behind it.  i did address some questionable topics like the underaged oversexual portrayal + beastality that’s popular for her and i am NOT HERE FOR IT so if u came for that................. issa no from me dawg. when i say unbearable.... i mean it. fandom grossed me out. y’all wild.

anyway. thoughts below !

some things that were CONFIRMED for me were:

> midgar is lax around its anti-wutai rhetoric in its most important parts ( namely, hq, wall market, and avalanche ). for propaganda’s sake among the common people, it stands to create a united front. but in consumerism & in strength, they consider the wutai equals just as anyone else. 

see: tseng in the turks; madam m in wall market; the supplier for avalanche.

i would even argue that sector 5 / wall market is the safest place in midgar for wutaians, given don corneo’s obvious fetishism ( and that really............. isn’t saying a lot ).

i’m not going to entertain that it’s an “ admiration for culture and architecture ” in true weeaboo fashion given that of all positions he could give madam m to hold, her duties are to screen women that would be appealing to his aesthetic and to run a massage parlor where the highest bidder gets to have a happy ending. she is literally the “ asian parlors are actually fronts for brothels ” stereotype except in this sex trade, all women go to don corneo. i will have no apologists in this house. 

i have more developing thoughts on madam m like how she might be doing the sex trafficking part in her own self-interest / as a type of self-preservation, like the don might say “ well if u don’t want to be a wife then u better find some for me ” but... 1) this isn’t the post for that and 2) that logic does not explain why chocobo sam and andrea rhodea are also apart of the ring. but in my opinion, you can tell she’s not crazy about it bc as soon as aerith mentions it to her she becomes so wildly upset that she breaks character. i don’t think she’s a sell out. i think she’s an exploited and fetishized woman in a tough place, and i feel for her.

despite this, it’s clear that because of his obvious ‘ preference ’ they’re [ wutaians ] held at a higher standard ( i.e., he doesn’t dispose of madam m immediately like he does with every other woman who is unfortunate enough to meet him ), so i’m willing to go out on a limb and say despite the high amount of shinra foot traffic that goes through wall market ( and we know this bc everybody who is everybody from SOLDIERS to Turks go to honeybee inn ), a wutaian would probably be fine there.

> wutai is the strongest world power by natural means. without SOLDIER s & g programs, midgar’s biggest claim to fame is to reach first-world status as a metropolis by siphoning mako via its reactors. without its reactors, the whole town would either be: 1) slums, like below the plate; or 2) as common as every other area in the nearby vicinity ( i.e., kalm, costa del sol, nibelheim ). by siphoning mako energy, midgar truly is unnatural, so... hm... 

corel could have been a contender ‘cause they use fossil fuels ( and look at how successful gold saucer is! ), but the failed reactor really threw them out the loop. costa del sol + icicle inn are both partially shin-ra owned / managed, so i’m not counting them.

> infiltrating midgar / shinra isn’t difficult. nor is navigating throughout the sectors. while there is the mention of the ID scan on the trains, we see this is not applicable on foot ( freely able to walk through sectors 5, 6, 7, and 8 as party; jessie + co are able to go above the plate to go to her parents’ house despite already being listed as AVALANCHE and that their fake IDs had already expired ). given that yufi entirely travels on foot because of her airsickness / motion sickness, she’d be undetectable. also note that the first 59 floors of shinra hq by stairwell are not monitored... and neither was the front door, so she could easily sneak in whenever the need called for it.

> established multiple points of contact between rufus + yufi ( and by extension, the turks + yufi ). i’m really going into this in the next section ‘cause... their dynamic became so much more interesting. but we already know that at minimum, there was contact bc she had the phs rufus had provided to godo + was using it to communicate with zack for treasure.... but let me hold off on this bc there’s one more thing i want to add here.

regarding the turks: it’s established that even if a person is someone of interest to shin-ra, they won’t necessarily act on attacking or abducting immediately ( see: aerith ). we already know they’ve known yufi since she was a child, and if they’re working with rufus they’d know what she looked like as she aged, so the excuse of “ she looks different than when they worked with her in wutai ” is out the window. it’s more than likely that they’re enabling her to continue her business with rufus + have probably assisted her with not being caught. 

> yufi’s clothes are absolutely normal for her age. it always annoyed me that somehow tifa’s clothing was like considered “ impractical but acceptable ” because she���s a legal adult and because cishet men were too drawn to the boobies to complain. but then yufi was either like HELLA sexualized as a minor ( the amount of ecchi / hentai that exists of underage y.uffie despite there being of-age content [ i.e., her portrayals in advent children + dirge of cerberus ] is.......................................... ridonk ) OR she was like hella slut-shamed and i’m out here like.... hello??? what kinda anti-wutai rhetoric is this? anyway. i’d like to call attention to kyrie, who looks like she’s wearing like 60% of y.uffie’s dirge of cerberus outfit. if anything, this only reinforces that yufi’s fashion choices are.......... legit normal, age appropriate, and anyone who wants to argue otherwise can shut the fuck up.

if you’re really gonna ask “ how come her shorts are unbuttoned ” like go check your privilege. the short answer is probably that rufus stole all of her damn belts to make into his coat. the long answer is that a youth traveling the world SOLO she is probably slim on money to be frequently shopping for clothes ? and the clothes that are available in the slums vs on the plate are probably not great quality ( idk if y’all have ever shopped at a freesized open market before but like... buttons pop off INSTANTLY sometimes and those seams will tear if u stretch the wrong way. like fast fashion but like........ hella wild ). she could find better clothes above the plate, but given the anti-wutai rhetoric up there... probably not a wise choice. 

since you’re looking at her outfit anyway.. can i bring your attention to her sweater, and have you note that it’s made of the same material as cloud’s? i.e., she’s wearing shin-ra/SOLDIER brand quality? ( need further proof that it’s SOLDIER? zack and angeal wear the same one ) probably gotten from either a trip to hq or........ someone on the inside............ but obviously cropped to fit her. she might’ve even had it for some time. now let’s keep looking.... i’m willing to bet the latter, and here’s why! ( prepare for galaxy brain time )

now for standard SOLDIERS, they’re assigned colors. we know third class / infantrymen are blue; second class are burgundy / red ( think kunsel ); and black / dark blue for first class. don’t nobody wear green.... in this whole damn universe.... as a main character.... except child y.uffie. HMMMMM. here’s the sweater again to compare. 

i’m just saying.

now, the ideas INTRODUCED to me were:

> there is only one AVALANCHE, but it is splintered into different factions.

now i always wondered like, how come they just picked up the name AVALANCHE when it was established already. like idk i don’t think people would be like “ ah yes we’re the n.azis and we’re different than the other ones, but we wanna evoke the same fear ” u know what i mean?? usually u would carry the same ideology... but it was always so apparent that barret held different views and goals than elfe, so i was always so confused.

but not anymore. now it’s established that they’re the same group, begun in midgar + just carrying out different methods of “ fuckin’ shit up for the shin-ra ” over the last 10 years, spreading the word about the danger of reactors + it’s suckin’ up the lifeblood of the planet to anyone who would hear. now that makes sense. in the same chapter that this is established, however, they also claim...

> yufi as a benefactor to AVALANCHE.

now this shit had me like AAAAAAAAH. now there is no damn way you and i played the same game if u didn’t see this. they literally say “ AVALANCHE is being provided weapons by someone to fuck shit up, in return for all the materia in midgar. ”

who would want all the materia in midgar? HMMMMMMMMM.

> with that point established, let’s go back to rufus + yufi having multiple points of contact. so i already introduced the idea that rufus clearly has to have contact with yufi bc he’s the one spouting all the secrets to shinra treasure via the PHS. and yufi has claimed ownership of the phone by literally labeling it as “ treasure princess ” so there is no question that he thinks he’s talking to godo versus yufi. 

but we also know that rufus is the person behind AVALANCHE. my man has TIME on house arrest, obviously. we also know that he’s on house arrest in junon, not midgar. now, if he’s out here giving them logistics like places to go to spout their rhetoric, and yufi is providing weapons ( remember, wutai is the strongest power by natural means, and apparently hq is free real estate to explore, so she’s got multiple ways to provide gear without it being an inconvenience to her ), so it’s.........pretty obvious to say that the way she would go in connection to AVALANCHE would be through rufus. also, remember she has bad blood with AVALANCHE because of their actions in wutai, so... she’s not gonna be keen about them anyway. it seems much more practical for someone who already views them ( and tbh, lots of people ) as tools ( rufus vc: “ i own you ” ) to accomplish one’s tasks to help her connect with meeting her own goals ( “ all the materia in midgar ” ).

this would also explain why yufi is found hanging outside junon.

if you opted to grab her outside nibelheim... you might argue that it’s because nibelheim is obviously suspicious + truly the evidence at how shady shin-ra is, given the whole place was rebuilt + is filled with actors to hide the fact that the whole place burned to the ground + was once the site of jenova + currently remains the site as hojo’s secondary lab + other secret, vincent valentine with the protomateria slumbering. she could have been tipped off by rufus as “ there’s another treasure here ” but like... there’s no way she would have known it was vincent. even zack is like “ idk wtf is happening here so i’mma leave this alone. ”

also, i love that rufus uses “ heir to the throne ” verbage, which is so akin to yufi also being “ heir to the throne ” & look at them: spiteful children rebelling against their useless ass dads to create new world order + to destroy the old shin-ra company.  i love that for them.

so in conclusion........ this game FED ME. god i wanna play it again and again. i beat it on normal and got everything except 1 treasure and 1 task from chadley. i also need to do all the combat simulators. but given i did what i could in.... 3.5 days, i’m not too upset by it. this game has so much replay value and... i can say i’m glad i bought it twice.

g.amestop give me my freaking shinra badge i’ve damn well earned it.

oh and two more things going forward:

> nanaki continues to sound old as hell. which duh, given advent children. but u know how they established him as a young teen in the og + so it made sense for y.uffie and nanaki to be friends ‘cause they were mentally the same age? i don’t...... see how that works now. 

also.....y’all could have missed me with this shit already but STOP SHIPPING HIM WITH YUFI. NOW UR ONLY ARGUMENT IS GONE. STOP. i saw some art of nanaki & y.uffie fucking in the tags + floating around google and i was like....... WHY!!! and then there’s also weird hybrid art like what if they had a kid or something and i just........  STOP.

i have flashbacks of when i first started writing on tumblr + how i was bombarded by furries wanting to fuck bc of this. like deadass king dedede from kirby. later on i also saw sonic & even alligators ( not an alligator man.... tho i did see king k. rool + donkey kong as well........ i hated y’all for a hot minute ). it’s not even “ monster fucking ” it’s bestiality and I’M BEGGING YOU TO STOP. y’all can truly MISS ME WITH THIS.

however, u know, bigby wolf + everyone from castlevania could easily get it. stardust platinum where ya at. if i had to pick it would be....... more humanoid than a penguin or a “ lab rat dog ” u feel? 

> i am not crazy about y.uffentine. look. i know it exists. i know it was big bc fandom was like “ optional character ship ftw! ” + then dirge of cerberus came out and y’all went wild ( to be fair, i get it, it was the only ship outside of NANAKI and BEING KIDNAPPED/ASSAULTED BY SHINRA SOLDIERS AS A CHILD that people could feasibly comprehend for y.uffie for some reason............................................................... it was an actually “ NORMAL ” person........ ) but like. i’m sorry. it’s not doin it for me. i’ve seen like two other y.uffie blogs out here that actually stick to canon so like if u want your y.uffentine that bad, like maybe ask them. but please don’t ask me. 

ok i’m done for real now! thanks for reading !

#♝ meta. #♚ verse iii . travail. #spoilers / #ffvii spoilers / #remake / #remake spoilers / #ffvii remake spoilers / #idk if y'all need this tagged as anything else. #let me know if u do!

[isis-witch]

The Wendigo's Hunger - Until Dawn Fanfiction

A/N : Wendigo Josh × reader ( + Josh×Sam)

[The Frozen World - Émilie Simon]

This place hadn't changed in a year. Was the snow as white? Sam wasn't sure about that. She was looking through the window of the bus, which was driving her to the blackwood pines, three hundred sixty-five days after Washington's tragedy. The sky had greyish tones and the top of the mountains were hidden behind the heavy clouds. A mysterious fog rose little by little. It wouldn't have bothered her one year ago, but today, it was different. Maybe Beth and Hannah's ghosts were floating here, beneath this wet grey screen, watching their friend coming back to the lodge.

She wondered how was feeling Josh. It was him, who asked everybody to come here and have a sort of birthday party last year. It was kinda paradoxical: he wanted to forget what happened to his sisters by celebrating their death. It was really weird. Anyway, Sam liked him enough to do that. If it was the only way to make him feel better, she was ready to commemorate the twins' lost with him. She missed him. He was the kind of person who had this little indescribable thing that could have made you melt. Even if he was often oversexualizing everything, she didn't mind. It was never unhealthy, embarrassing jokes. It was just ... Josh. His smile was pretty seductive too, like the rest of his body: his clear eyes, which had a strange but beautiful color between green and blue... His black soft hair, the shape of his lips, his olive skin. The only thing she didn't know about was... "Stop it, you stupid girl. He was your friend. There was nothing between him and you." she said to herself, realizing she was biting her lower lip.

A sudden stop threw her against the seat in front of her. She quickly took her pink backpack and step out of the bus. She deeply wanted to abandon it on the road, but it was a gift from her mother, so she'd better keep it. Joshua laughed at her each time she was bringing this babyish bag with her. At least, he took it for her each time, he could be a gentleman sometimes.

The night had almost fallen, the snow was already submerging her ushanka. She made her way to the cable car, but Chris wasn't waiting for her. Nobody was here, except her. She decided by herself to come back in the mountains, to find her friend who had disappeared in the depths of mines. Authorities were formal: he was probably dead. He couldn't survive without food, in the winter cold, wounded and alone. It was impossible. Nobody tried to search his corpse or the cause of his decease, and this was driving her mad. Yes, he had done stupid things, like this horrible prank, but he was, first of all, a human in distress. She imagined him, waiting for any kind of help that never arrived. Maybe the police were right. What was she expecting? To win a fight against tens of wendigos? She sighed and opened her backpack. A photo of her and Josh was inside, she was certain to have put it in her bag before she left, but she couldn't find it.

"I'll search for it later."

She climbed into the cable car and relaxed a bit. She wouldn't be disturbed by anybody, Washington's didn't want to enter in the lodge, after their three-loss, it was too hard. They gave her the key and didn't stop to repeat she could do what she wanted with it. She was surprised by their behavior. They weren't really curious about their children's death, as if they already disappeared from their memories. It looked like everybody on Earth had become blind. Friends, family, each of them had forgotten about Hannah, Beth, and their brother. She looked at the ground, while a tear was rolling on her pale cheek. She felt guilty and monstrous. She abandoned Josh. But now was the time to be forgiven.

Mike was still angry, because of what his "friend" had done, Chris was always avoiding the subject and Matt was neutral but too scared to go with Sam. And the girls... Well... They tried to forget this story as much as they could. Ashley was scared to death of Josh himself. After all, he hit her in the face, for a "revenge game". Sam was quite comprehensive. Jessica, after her hospital sojourn, decided to cut off contact with the rest of the group, including Mike. But she kept talking with Sam for a while. The two women admitted that Josh was their crush before the incident. Jess hoped so much that her boyfriend at that time said "yes" when she asked if he was serious about letting Joshua coming with them for their little... Shindig. In fact, the braided hair girl wasn't mad or scared anymore. The past was behind her and talking about him wasn't so irritating. For Emily's part, it was impossible to have a normal conversation when Josh was put on the table. She was turning hysterical and having nightmares for entire weeks about the mines and the creatures living there.

Someone knocked at the window of the cable car. Sam screamed out and hurried to the booth bottom. How was that possible?

"Who the hell are you?" she asked.

"If you stop yelling like a dying pig, maybe we will be able to introduce ourselves." answered a man with long straight black hair

"What do you mean by ourselves ?"

Once again, the man invited her to step out of the cabin. She obeyed and saw behind her interlocutor a young lady. She looked tired and worried.

"So...hum...Hello, my name is Lucas, and this is my sister, [Y/N]. I suppose you're Samantha, am I right?"

"How do you know my name?"

"Can we talk in the lodge? We're running out of time."

Sam nodded and followed Lucas through the woods she strode across, covered in blood and dirt, a year ago. She walked beside [Y/N], who didn't say a word since they had met. Lucas's sister had dark hair too, very pale skin and hazel eyes. She was hiding her chin and her lips into her winter jacket collar, but Sam was convicted that it wasn't because of the cold weather. The girl was hiding from something. Wendigos? Did they know about them?

"Are you alright, [Y/N] ?" she asked.

[Y/N] turned her head in a jump and quickly nodded. Before Sam could say anything else, Lucas shouted their names. They were in front of the lodge. The blonde woman breathed a huge sigh of relief. Finally, she would be able to take a hot bath, have some rest and find answers to her questions. Lucas opened the door and let his sister and Sam enter the lodge.

"Alright, guys, Sam is here, we can start our investigations." declared the tall man, by putting off his long black felt coat.

"What the fuck are you doing here, you all?" asked Sam.

Indeed, all the band was sitting in the living room. Chris stood up and explained to her that Lucas had contacted him a few weeks ago, to help him and his sister to find their common friend, Joshua Washington. At first, he was reluctant and doubtful. How Josh could have survived? But the revelations of Lucas convinced him to save his old best friend and tried, in turn, to persuade Ashley to come with him. Mike, Jess, Matt, and Emily have been informed too, one by one. They hesitated, as did Chris, and finally agreed that they couldn't let Ash and Chris alone in the mountains, where too many wendigos were roaming.

"And what's that super mega secret that changed your mind?"

"There is a way to get back from the state of wendigo. That's why [Y/N] and I are here. I'm the weapon, she's the brain. But we need as much help as possible, and this is the reason why we called the seven of you." replied Lucas.

"Maybe you could let your sister talk for just a second?" suggested Emily.

[Y/N] lifted her eyes in surprise and seemed more worried than ever. She walked slowly to the center of the room and sighed.

"Yes, there is a solution. Our father, Jack Fiddler, was a wendigo hunter. Chris saw him dying by the hands of a creature."

"He was your father? Oh God, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay. When we learned his death, we deeply wanted to get our revenge and become hunters too. Then your witnesses were broadcasted on TV and radio, with Josh's disappearance... And also the mysterious slaughter of two forest rangers, in the same mines. We had finally a true goal, which worth to die for: save our friend."

"Wait, wait, wait, how do you know him?" asked Mike.

"I have been in the same class as him since preschool, and when we entered high school he was giving me Spanish tutoring. He quickly became friends with Lucas, and... he and I were getting closer from day to day."

Sam felt something breaking inside her. Was it her heart? So when Josh said he was very happy that she had come to the birthday, was he only talking about a special friendship? Her cheeks got red and she had a lump in the throat. Lucas put maps, notes, and illustrations on the coffee table. The group paid great attention to [Y/N] 's brother's explanations. Sam's vision became blurry.

"Hey, guys, can you continue without me? I need to... rest a bit. I don't feel very well."

Lucas was about to protest but his sister stopped him and allowed Sam to go upstairs and have a bath. She headed towards the bathroom, locked the door and lighted some candles. She remembered what happened last year. Josh had hidden a camera and filmed her, naked, then only wrapped up in a white towel. If it has been kind of traumatic a year ago, today she was afraid to admit to herself the truth: she would have loved to see her in a bathtub, in Josh's arms. She felt like a true psychopath, but she couldn't stop thinking about that. Oh, how she dreamt to be in a flimsy outfit, in hot water, with him, the only man she had truly desired. While she was undressing, she was thinking about the things Joshua could have done to her in this bathroom, if she had invited him to join her the last time she saw him, in his normal state. She slipped into the water and imagined his body against hers. God, he was probably the hottest thing on these mountains. Her hand slowly reached her crotch and started to skim herself. She closed her eyes a few seconds and reopened them in a whisper. But what appeared in her sight absolutely terrorized her!

"Joshua? Is that you?"

#until dawn #josh washington #josh×reader #joshwashington×reader #wendigo josh #until dawn fanfiction

[valkerymillenia]

"Aquaman" (2018)

I didn't expect to get to watch this in theaters because of financial issues but I got invited to a theater with circumstances that allowed me to use my free ticket coupon so... Yay.

Bear in mind that is just my personal impression. Also- SPOILERS.

Honestly, I went in expecting nothing. Here's why.

Firstly, because I never liked classic comic book Aquaman: straight, white, upper-middle class, cliché blond male with time and resources to get a law degree, upgrades to superpowered King that is mildly useless outside of water and still manages to be one-dimensional (who's story is only interesting and validated by the characters around him and not himself), goes from mild-mannered Superman-copycat personality to the most boring played out viking/pirate-esque personality that tries to hard to be more than it is, all of this with a splash of arrogance, a truckload of tacky outfits and a touch of toxic masculinity to wrap it all up. Sorry but it's just not my jam.

Granted I haven't read the last, what, ten years of the Aquaman comics? Or watched any adaptations others than the Jason Momoa's since... 2010 or 2012, I think?

But yeah, I was never very much into classic Arthur Curry (but I can appreciate the Aquaman worldbuilding though! That part is pretty cool).

Secondly, I got my hopes up for Jason Momoa's Aquaman because even though the JL movie disappoints (as does the overall DCEU movieverse in general), Jason's new rendition of the character seemed promising and a lot more interesting, but given how only Wonder Woman impressed in the new DCEU and everything else has been somewhat disappointing as a whole, I didn't want to get my hopes up again.

However, considering that I tried not to have expectations (other than "please don't oversexualize Mera or shove her exclusively into the romantic interest role") I actually ended up being impressed by the movie!

My first and most simple impression is:

Aquaman feels like Indiana Jones and Fifth Element meet The Little Mermaid and 20,000 Leagues.

It's also a very Arthurian tale, heavily dependant on family drama.

Regarding Jason's acting, the way he chose to play the character is so much better than anything I could have asked for. He makes for a well rounded imperfectly perfect character, he's not Marty-Stu'ed like other renditions, he manages to effortlessly ooze "tough guy" vibes while still being a giant teddy bear dork. Thehe new look is pretty damn impressive even though the movie returns a bit to more recent comic redesigns rather than the new style of JL, and the way Jason acts makes Arthur feel human, exciting and with realistic emotional development.

Plus, a POC Aquaman, specially a Polynesian one since that's how the movie codes him, with strong connections both his heritages, just fits so much better than the Arian cliché, specially since the Atlanteans always displayed a lot of racism/specism in the comics (and even more outright in this movie).

Mera was shockingly not as sexualized or romanticized as I expected. Yes, she still is on both accounts to a certain degree, with her tight overly-cleavaged suit and her role as princess-promised-to-the-king (which in a fight for legacy story like this will always shove her a bit into the trophy role), BUT somehow Amber Heard manages to balance this out with the badassery of a woman who actively takes charge and though she places duty above all else, she doesn't let her role take away from her individuality or shadow her power, strength and intelligence.

So Mera actually turned out pretty incredible but I still want to see her more on equal footing with Arthur, plot-wise. Could also live without the usual mid-battle pause to talk and kiss though.

Tom and Atlanna were a pleasant surprise! Their romance sub-plot actually sets a good tone for the movie and ties everything together very well in a way that makes the story flow and connect convincingly and full-circle. It's also interesting to see how the relationship defies a lot of stereotypes and metaphors of discrimination- it is, after all, an interracial couple where the woman is the strong powerful one and the man is the gentle heart that does not at all feel his masculinity threatened by his queen wife. Very wholesome.

The chronology and editing were pretty damn good too. Again, I haven't seen editing and story flow this well in DC other than with WW.

The CGI was... Well, for DC standards it was pretty epic but still not up to par to the bar the MCU has set. However, entirely aquatic world/sets are something new and ambitious so we have to cut them some slack.

Then again, the biggest problem wasn't so much the CGI but the leaps in logic.

Sure, the movie is spent 85% under water (aka working around visual distortion, air bubbles, low visibly, pollution/blurriness, unknown landscapes, a very big variety of ecosystems between the different bodies of water depicted, etc) in a universe with fish people, crab people, underwater volcanoes, prehistoric sea monsters, wrecks and decay, millions of aquatic creatures, underwater cities of advanced tech and an alien-quality, completely new mind-blowing architecture... It's all very ambitious and you'd think some of these would be a bit much to swallow or look subpar but that's not it at all.

Yes, some of the more fantastical creatures are still less than perfect (not talking about Uncanny Abyss here but literal CGI stiffness) but that can be absolutely overlooked in favor of their creativity and how well in works with the story.

No, the real problem is some obvious flaws in well established physics, used for dramatic effect. I guess many people might not notice them but to me some were a I little more jarring than others and tended to distract from the actual story. I guess I'll post some of these moments in a separate post.

HOWEVER, the one thing I really have to point out in this movie is the wardrobe!

The females had skintight outfits or flowy pearly things, obviously meant to be sexy but the irony is they actually come off as more practical, simple, realistic and appealing! (The jellyfish dress is an exception for obvious reasons, it's supposed to be over the top). And the ladies accessorize very well too! Meanwhile, the male outfits are straight out of the comics- loudly colorful, nerdy, unnecessary, clunky, heavy and in some cases (looking at you, Orm) just plain tacky.

I mean, Arthur has an excuse- he wears pretty normal clothes unless forced to change and when he finally takes up the legacy suit there's actually a good excuse for the brightness and flourish since it's supposed to be an ancient King's ceremonial armor (taking a corpse's suit and putting it on right away is a little morbid though) and, like the female outfits, it's skintight like a wetsuit so it does have less drag and manages to be practical despite the flourish. And Black Manta has A BIT of an excuse too- he has to reshape and work with tech that is beyond his own and just tries to keep it sustainable so I can totally accept it. No other male outfits can be excused or unseen (*Edna Mode voice* capes? Underwater? Really?).

All in all, it's a good movie and I'm impressed. Now if only DC stopped trying to force dark grunginess and cheap-looking CGI (*cough*JL*cough*SS*cough*) on everything and actually took real risks and raised the bar instead of trying to be edgy, super serious and "sexy"...

Though... What does it tell DC that so far the best DCEU movies have been the ones staring and directed women and POC?

#rach rambles #rach reviews #aquaman #arthur curry #mera

[viviennelam]

Miss Representation/Tough Guise; Group 18

Miss Representation - Vivienne Lam

1) The general main ideas behind Miss Representation are that women are oversexualized and that there are not enough women holding leadership positions. Throughout the film, there are examples and conversations that support these ideas. 

2) One relevant concept from class that I saw depicted in the movie was the objectification of women. In class we discussed the general aspects of objectification, and two of the aspects that I thought pertained to the movie were that “women are … trivialized” and “judged on appearance more than men are.” This pertains to the first part of the movie as it focuses on the media's large influence on society. Through the media, women are objectified in various ways whether it be through their actions or their clothing. Furthermore, the media tends to show one body type that people tend to idolize, which has an extremely negative effect on how women, even young girls, feel about their body and how they look. It also affects men’s perspectives on women as they do not think as highly of girls with a body type different from the one shown throughout media. This relates to the aforementioned aspects of objectification because women must deal with these standards and having men look at them a certain way while these problems are not as large of an issue for men. 

Another relevant concept from class that was depicted in the movie was women’s roles in the workplace. In the movie, one man talks about how women are sexualized to the point that men do not find them threatening, and women therefore lose power, which proves true when looking at the number of women in positions of authority. After explaining this, the movie proceeds to give examples of large companies and their CEOs, who are all men, and the ratio of women to the total number of members on each company’s board. This relates to what we learned in class because there is a table showing the percentage of women working in certain occupations. Throughout this table, it is evident that women have jobs that are more nurturing, and these percentages drop when looking at STEM related jobs are jobs that have a great amount of power, such as any management positions. 

3) One point that surprised me was the extent of  the objectification of women. One woman in the film explained that the objectification of women leads to women seeing themselves as objects as well. This then leads to the lack of women voting or running for positions in office because they feel as though their opinion does not matter and does not deserve to be heard. This was surprising because I understand that lack of self worth could lead to tragic things, such as depression or eating disorders, but I did not realize that I could be extended into simple things such as voting, something that I did not know was relevant in any way.

4) I agree with the movie’s perspective. In the beginning of the film, the focus was on media and its influences and women’s standards. This is something that many people in society do not recognize, and I thought it is something extremely important as it affects almost everyone’s lives. For those who have acknowledged the media’s influence, not many people are taking a stand and working to improve the situation. I appreciated the film’s perspective on this issue because it discussed the effects of media on the individual, such as body dissatisfaction, depression, lower GPAs, etc., and in society, such as women’s loss of power. This allows the audience to recognize what many typical women in society are going through. The film also brought in celebrities who have worked in the media to share their firsthand experiences and why the media sets unhealthy and unrealistic expectations for women. I really appreciated this because so many women try so hard to look like the women that they see on the media, but the film brought attention to the fact that producers are telling these women that they are too fat or that they need cosmetic surgery, which is not natural.

Tough Guise - Emma Lapini

1) This documentary is centered around an anti-violence and cultural theorist named Jackson Katz as he goes through his journey of exposing toxic masculinity rooted within the american culture.

2) Throughout the documentary, he exposed discrimination against women and the LGBTQ community from the average male in america. These actions that these men due on a day-to-day basis that has a harmful effect on members of subordinate groups are caused from institutional discrimination. He explained however that men were gender socialized to be violent through video games and their peers/parents. Thus, men were not born with these traits but were taught these values as they developed. 

3) I was shocked by how normalized violence, sexism, and homophabia was in the eyes of a young man through their daily lives from the film industry and advertisments to pornography, the sports culture, and US political culture. These cultures subjectify minority groups such as women and belittle them so often to the point where it is just installed within the foundations of our society.

4) I agree that men are more subjected to act a certain way in society in order to be more “manly”/dominant and show strength. Some of these examples are shunning men that act more feminine because they believe that shows more weakness and go against the norms of what a man should be. As well as not being able to show their emotions because being emotional/hurt is expressed as a weakness rather than a strength so men are forced to hold in their emotions which can later damage their future relationships as well as their mental health. I also agree with the filmmakers that this was installed within our culture and norms need to change in order for men to see other communities such as women and the LGBTQ community as equal.

What is the overarching theme between the two documentaries?

The overarching theme between these two documentaries is that society depicts males and females in certain ways which then causes each gender to manifest certain ideals or standards that they are unable to live up to. As a result, these ideals/standards have a negative impact on themselves and on society.