#better than i used to

[malwarechips]

yknow i never noticed the sheer rareness of images having ids or alt text on this website until i started adding alt text to my art (and trying to remember to add it to any images i post in general, especially text screenshots) and that makes me kinda sad

#i used to be pretty intimidated by the idea of having to describe my art but. it isnt as hard as it sounds #i just treat it like im describing an image i dont have at the time really #plus ive been told that even a simple id is better than no id #lev.txt

[dramatic-dolphin]

"europeans are soooo much more enlightened and anti-racist than americans" haha sooo true, quick question, how do you feel about romani people?

‼️THIS POST IS ABOUT ANTI-ROMANI SENTIMENT. DO NOT DERAIL. ‼️

#i hate europeans who say this shit. yeah sure you are soooo antiracist. i fucking bet. #literally anyone who cares even a little abt this knows tgat americans are WAY better than us in this regard.

[yarrowdraws]

very late to the meme, it's been done before but. here. turn on the sound pls

#disco elysium #harry du bois #cop slide #slowly learning to use blender and after effects #i was like 'oh i could just send a ragdoll harry through the slide that would be easier!' no. thats way harder than animating him #i could have done better camera shake but i already spent waaaay too much time on this #animation #blender

[sheepgirlmaidtummy]

man. this whole thing pisses me off because like. even when people talk about staff having a history of hating trans women, that this isnt the first time, without fail black trans women are forgotten to be included again and again. im not surprised this caused such an uproar when the popular white woman gets deleted. nobody should be, its been that way like forever. some cunt in my inbox got annoyed i called rita a sex worker (lol? okay)

but i mentioned that in my post because so many black trans women have gotten removed from this site for their sex work alone, regardless of if it "broke community guidelines" or not, especially when tumblr live and the ads on this website are so fucking horny. idek what to say rn because like. this wont get as many notes as the posts talking about her will. the exploding car thing is gonna get more attention than the trans women on this site you dont actually care about listening to. ive been talking about how unfair it is to be a black tgirl on this site for years and nobody cares.

i love rita, we talked abit the other day and she's doing fine, dont get it twisted and think i hate her or some bs, she's a big fucking reason im not fucking homeless.

but part of why her deletion got to #1 trending on tumblr for multiple days in a row is that she's white

#reblog this you fuckers. im tired of you people saying you care about us. about my sisters and then ignore us like we never existed #gonna have to put abuncha these tags here again too otherwise literally nobody will see. i got abuncha new followers for that post #yall better Do Something other than performative bullshit for once #whatever. whatever. #predstrogen #photomatt #transgender #trans rights #black trans lives matter #black trans women #carhammerexplosionmatt

[dduane]

...Just read this thread. JUST READ IT.

#because I honestly don't think I'll find a better phrase today #than #JESUS LUPITA NYONG'O CHRIST #US politics #contains much edifying slang #and also gifs #as well as shit you will not believe #sweet Powers that Be in their holy Bucket

[pickled-flowers]

Sex positivity is also about not calling Ace people prude and using virgin as an insult 👍 hope that helps

#sex positivity is also respecting sex lives that dont look like yours #or lack thereof #and insulting people by saying they dont fuck make you sound stupid <3 #im sorry i just cant take people who use their sex lives as a flex seriously its just not my thing! #like yea having lots of kinky sex is cool but not having sex and not being interested by sex is also cool #one is not better than the other the human experience is just very varied and diverse #its normal you wont understand everyone your brain isnt even made to comprehend how many human there are in the world #but we should all have spaces to navigate our sex lives as we wish even if that means interacting with sex as a subject as little as possibl

[stellarspecter]

@pscentral event 20: antagonists ↳ THE LORDS IN BLACK in NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE

#nerdy prudes must die #npmd #starkid #npmdedit #team starkid #the lords in black #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #npmd spoilers #userisiah #userfaiths #userbaz #usercats #userhallie #noooo fucking clue what to tag in this fandom lmao #musicaledit #? sure #anyway yeah i watched npmd and immediately had to make this i was up until 1 am last night #wouldve been earlier but i had to take a break for dnd lol #i was gonna do a tua set for the event but this is easier and better so like. slay #i just wish they had more screen time. pokey and tinky have less than 20 seconds each </3 #oh and the titles and stuff are from the fan wiki. hope i didn't get anything wrong #i've been getting a lot of use out of this motion blur text transition its so funky fresh #*edits

[sirfetchd]

I am participating in the March 2nd shutdown for Palestine.

Read more about it here.

for more info on actions to take for Palestine: ceasefiretoday | the BDS movement's website

places to donate: Palestine Children's Relief Fund | CareForGaza | Operation Olive Branch | eSims for Gaza | Pious Projects | Mutual Aid Diabetes

And of course, don't forget your daily clicks.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

#i'm posting this early so i can queue it since i'm going to bed #i figured using my q for this was better than pausing it #palestine

[zosanbrainrot]

meet cute at your local żabka

english translation and notes under the cut 💗💗💗

żabka (froggy) is the name of an extremely popular corner shop chain in Poland, it's literally everywhere

My translation is not always literal but sometimes vibes based, like in PL version Sanji doesn't use "jesus" in the second page, but the expression "ja pierdole" doesn't have an english equivalent that would make sense in this contex, literally it means "I fuck" lmao

I now see I mixed up prepositions when Sanji asks Luffy for the sauces, uh oh ANYWAY

I also didn't translate the cans Zoro brings at the end, the writing on the cans says "potwór" which means "monster", so yup these are basically monster energy drinks but translated literally hence the capitalized P as the logo. Why does he drink that instead of some Polish ass beer? Good question, I just enjoy calling them drinks Potwór, and dont know much about beer

#this one is for you polaki MWAH #but mainly for myself #mnie śmieszy #I tried to use nightshade on this but it's not the best with flat colors and also one page took like over an hour I think #i thought my PC was better than that damn #but it was my first attempt gonna be looking more into it later #jeden kawałek #sanji #luffy #zoro #zosan #roronoa zoro #black leg sanji #vinsmoke sanji #one piece #one piece fanart #mugiwara no luffy #my art #lets temporarily ignore żabkas practices of driving out small local shops and other shit they do to their franchisees #and focus on hotdogs #zabka is a quintessential part of a modern polish experience but alas capitalism

[adriartts]

hes always out pouting in the sheepyards

#original #me when im a bitch. (hes a bitch) #idk idk i got boredddddd i looked at pictures of sheep. julian time #i like this design better than before. the sash and the shawl are nice and his hair needed to be a lil messier #used a different brush than usual. i like eet it looks softer #the fuckin. funny to me. the sheep is sitting there like :3 meanwhile julian is seething about some bullshit probably #why are u so PISSYYYYYYY. bitch ass. hes dumb i like him #oc #Julian Dae #ocs

[schmoel]

sooooo fun watching joel and zedaph interact. a hermit whose only experience with breaking minecraft is getting obsessed with the chisels and bits mod for a while VS a hermit who could figure out how to play minecraft with all his limbs restricted ingame and irl. hermit who spends 1/3 of his year doing megabuilds alone and hermit who only goes out of his hole bases to run redstone experiments. awesome

#smallishbeans #zedaphplays #hermitcraft #joel's used to dealing with weird british people (oli) but zed is on another level. his joelisms have no effect #remembering the 2nd ep where joel made his entrance by doing a water bucket clutch. god. #and then him trying to make it seem like his side of the jump game was working better than zed's. SUCH A LOSER #i

[sensitiveheartless]

(The rest is under the readmore!)

(Next part) ->

#breaking news: local man is confronted with the fact that if he uses dumb contests as an excuse to avoid emotional vulnerability — #then his partner is going to do the exact same thing lol #also covid update: I had a bit of a relapse and have been completely stuck in bed again the last couple days #am still definitely doing better than before but remain very very fatigued #apparently changing my bedsheets was a little much for me lol #anyway thank you to the people who have sent in asks the last couple days!! I am very excited to get to them #I just had to get this self indulgent comic out of my system first lololol #bsd #bsd dazai #bsd chuuya #soukoku #skk #bungou stray dogs #my art

[francesderwent]

reblog this and tag with a food you no longer have access to (closed restaurant, state you moved away from, ex’s mom’s cooking, etc) that will haunt you until your dying day, mine are the spicy chicken sandwich on the employee menu at the fine dining restaurant I was a prep cook at, and the onion bagel from the kosher place down the street from my house when I lived in the city

#in which cate tells stories #that!!!! sandwich!!!!!! #spicy chicken breast with fresh mozzarella red onions and pesto on a ciabatta roll #I’ve tried to recreate it and I CAN’T #I don’t know what spice mix they used but DAMN #and nobody’s pesto was better than theirs #so much good food at that job tbh #the chef liked cooking for me because I was always so thrilled with whatever he did #he made ricotta gnocchi once??? it was THE BEST EVER #and lobster ravioli? that wasn’t even on the MENU we were both just there late at night and he made it for himself and gave me some #his greens and beans were also perfect #but I especially miss that sandwich #I ate that almost every day that summer

[qiinamii]

quite the poet, quite the inspo

#its a two parter but i'm not sure if i want to upload both bc the first one goes miles better and it was initially a standalone #bc twt format that builds the humor up lol but its still cute anyway so i'm putting both up #it's really sweet and sad Xiao hasn't much of an outlet to let things go and expressing thoughts than his coping mechanisms #the self destruction he's not aware about as it's veiled by reason of duty #so it's good that he's encouraged to use poetry as one of it #expression portrayed through words tailored in vagueness but also direct symbolism of something... just to encapsulate that meaning idk idk #qiiarts #xiao #lumine #traveler #paimon #zhongli #venti #hu tao #chongyun #xingqiu #diona #mika #noelle #genshin impact

[1alchemistart]

"Waltz with me!"

i don't usually take requests but this one (coming from @mariichengg thank you mwah!) got the gears in my little head turning! 'tis a scene from my own fic from a while back :D was fun to revisit!

#damianya #spy x family #sxf #damian desmond #anya forger #anya x damian #damian x anya #my art #WENT OVER THE ENTIRE FIC AGAIN and fixed what was bothering me SDFKSDL #i think im better at writing now? hopefully? than i used to be? #ive GOT to regain my courage about posting fics tho JKSDFL

[cuddlytogas]

So I accidentally almost got into an argument on Twitter, and now I'm thinking about bad historical costuming tropes. Specifically, Action Hero Leather Pants.

See, I was light-heartedly pointing out the inaccuracies of the costumes in Black Sails, and someone came out of the woodwork to defend the show. The misunderstanding was that they thought I was dismissing the show just for its costumes, which I wasn't - I was simply pointing out that it can't entirely care about material history (meaning specifically physical objects/culture) if it treats its clothes like that.

But this person was slightly offended on behalf of their show - especially, quote, "And from a fan of OFMD, no less!" Which got me thinking - it's true! I can abide a lot more historical costuming inaccuracy from Our Flag than I can Black Sails or Vikings. And I don't think it's just because one has my blorbos in it. But really, when it comes down to it...

What is the difference between this and this?

Here's the thing. Leather pants in period dramas isn't new. You've got your Vikings, Tudors, Outlander, Pirates of the Caribbean, Once Upon a Time, Will, The Musketeers, even Shakespeare in Love - they love to shove people in leather and call it a day. But where does this come from?

Obviously we have the modern connotations. Modern leather clothes developed in a few subcultures: cowboys drew on Native American clothing. (Allegedly. This is a little beyond my purview, I haven't seen any solid evidence, and it sounds like the kind of fact that people repeat a lot but is based on an assumption. I wouldn't know, though.) Leather was used in some WWI and II uniforms.

But the big boom came in the mid-C20th in motorcycle, punk/goth, and gay subcultures, all intertwined with each other and the above. Motorcyclists wear leather as practical protective gear, and it gets picked up by rock and punk artists as a symbol of counterculture, and transferred to movie designs. It gets wrapped up in gay and kink communities, with even more countercultural and taboo meanings. By the late C20th, leather has entered mainstream fashion, but it still carries those references to goths, punks, BDSM, and motorbike gangs, to James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Mick Jagger. This is whence we get our Spikes and Dave Listers in 1980s/90s media, bad boys and working-class punks.

And some of the above "historical" design choices clearly build on these meanings. William Shakespeare is dressed in a black leather doublet to evoke the swaggering bad boy artist heartthrob, probably down on his luck. So is Kit Marlowe.

But the associations get a little fuzzier after that. Hook, with his eyeliner and jewellery, sure. King Henry, yeah, I see it. It's hideously ahistorical, but sure. But what about Jamie and Will and Ragnar, in their browns and shabby, battle-ready chic? Well, here we get the other strain of Bad Period Drama Leather.

See, designers like to point to history, but it's just not true. Leather armour, especially in the western/European world, is very, very rare, and not just because it decays faster than metal. (Yes, even in ancient Greece/Rome, despite many articles claiming that as the start of the leather armour trend!) It simply wasn't used a lot, because it's frankly useless at defending the body compared to metal. Leather was used as a backing for some splint armour pieces, and for belts, sheathes, and buckles, but it simply wasn't worn like the costumes above. It's heavy, uncomfortable, and hard to repair - it's simply not practical for a garment when you have perfectly comfortable, insulating, and widely available linen, wool, and cotton!

As far as I can see, the real influence on leather in period dramas is fantasy. Fantasy media has proliferated the idea of leather armour as the lightweight choice for rangers, elves, and rogues, a natural, quiet, flexible material, less flashy or restrictive than metal. And it is cheaper for a costume department to make, and easier for an actor to wear on set. It's in Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings, King Arthur, Runescape, and World of Warcraft.

And I think this is how we get to characters like Ragnar and Vane. This idea of leather as practical gear and light armour, it's fantasy, but it has this lineage, behind which sits cowboy chaps and bomber/flight jackets. It's usually brown compared to the punk bad boy's black, less shiny, and more often piecemeal or decorated. In fact, there's a great distinction between the two Period Leather Modes within the same piece of media: Robin Hood (2006)! Compare the brooding, fascist-coded villain Guy of Gisborne with the shabby, bow-wielding, forest-dwelling Robin:

So, back to the original question: What's the difference between Charles Vane in Black Sails, and Edward Teach in Our Flag Means Death?

Simply put, it's intention. There is nothing intentional about Vane's leather in Black Sails. It's not the only leather in the show, and it only says what all shabby period leather says, relying on the same tropes as fantasy armour: he's a bad boy and a fighter in workaday leather, poor, flexible, and practical. None of these connotations are based in reality or history, and they've been done countless times before. It's boring design, neither historically accurate nor particularly creative, but much the same as all the other shabby chic fighters on our screens. He has a broad lineage in Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean and such, but that's it.

In Our Flag, however, the lineage is much, much more intentional. Ed is a direct homage to Mad Max, the costuming in which is both practical (Max is an ex-cop and road warrior), and draws on punk and kink designs to evoke a counterculture gone mad to the point of social breakdown, exploiting the thrill of the taboo to frighten and titillate the audience.

In particular, Ed is styled after Max in the second movie, having lost his family, been badly injured, and watched the world turn into an apocalypse. He's a broken man, withdrawn, violent, and deliberately cutting himself off from others to avoid getting hurt again. The plot of Mad Max 2 is him learning to open up and help others, making himself vulnerable to more loss, but more human in the process.

This ties directly into the themes of Our Flag - it's a deliberate intertext. Ed's emotional journey is also one from isolation and pain to vulnerability, community, and love. Mad Max (intentionally and unintentionally) explores themes of masculinity, violence, and power, while Max has become simplified in the popular imagination as a stoic, badass action hero rather than the more complex character he is, struggling with loss and humanity. Similarly, Our Flag explores masculinity, both textually (Stede is trying to build a less abusive pirate culture) and metatextually (the show champions complex, banal, and tender masculinities, especially when we're used to only seeing pirates in either gritty action movies or childish comedies).

Our Flag also draws on the specific countercultures of motorcycles, rockers, and gay/BDSM culture in its design and themes. Naturally, in such a queer show, one can't help but make the connection between leather pirates and leather daddies, and the design certainly nods at this, with its vests and studs. I always think about this guy, with his flat cap so reminiscient of gay leather fashions.

More overtly, though, Blackbeard and his crew are styled as both violent gangsters and countercultural rockstars. They rove the seas like a bikie gang, free and violent, and are seen as icons, bad boys and celebrities. Other pirates revere Blackbeard and wish they could be on his crew, while civilians are awed by his reputation, desperate for juicy, gory details.

This isn't all of why I like the costuming in Our Flag Means Death (especially season 1). Stede's outfits are by no means accurate, but they're a lot more accurate than most pirate media, and they're bright and colourful, with accurate and delightful silks, lace, velvets, and brocades, and lovely, puffy skirts on his jackets. Many of the Revenge crew wear recognisable sailor's trousers, and practical but bright, varied gear that easily conveys personality and flair. There is a surprising dedication to little details, like changing Ed's trousers to fall-fronts for a historical feel, Izzy's puffy sleeves, the handmade fringe on Lucius's red jacket, or the increasing absurdity of navy uniform cuffs between Nigel and Chauncey.

A really big one is the fact that they don't shy away from historical footwear! In almost every example above, we see the period drama's obsession with putting men in skinny jeans and bucket-top boots, but not only does Stede wear his little red-heeled shoes with stockings, but most of his crew, and the ordinary people of Barbados, wear low boots or pumps, and even rough, masculine characters like Pete wear knee breeches and bright colours. It's inaccurate, but at least it's a new kind of inaccuracy, that builds much more on actual historical fashions, and eschews the shortcuts of other, grittier period dramas in favour of colour and personality.

But also. At least it fucking says something with its leather.

#everyone say 'thank you togas' for not including a long tangent about evil rimmer in red dwarf 5x05 #Our Flag Means Death #Togas does meta #and yes these principles DO fall apart slightly in s2 and i DON'T like those costumes as much #don't get me wrong they're fun and gorgeous - but generally a bit less deep and more inaccurate. so. :( #I'm not sure this really says anything new about Our Flag but I just needed to get my thoughts out #i hate hate hate Gritty Period Drama costumes they're so boring and so ugly and so wrong #god bless OFMD for using more than 3 muted colours and actually putting men in heels (and not as a shorthand for rich/foppish villainy) <3 #looking at that Tudors still is insane like they really will go to any lengths to not make men feel like they've got bare legs XD #image descriptions in alt text #and yes i DID just sink about two hours into those so you'd better appreciate them