#let women have bodily autonomy if i have to see that post again i will cry

[vicsera]

-

#its so easy to see that some of yall dont actually care about women you hust hate men #let women have bodily autonomy if i have to see that post again i will cry #i was saved by traditional femininity but if j say anything im the bad guy whos forcing everyone to be a woman in the kitchen or. something #i dont fucking know anymore dude. i dont #just leave women alone how about that #vent tw #sighs. #adding later: #OH i understand why this ideology is so upsetting #the whole’choice feminism’ is bad or whatever #its because its terf ideology DUH! #yall falling for radfem bullshit once again. Yikes! #adding later 2: #‘i dont mean to attack women i just mean that the choices youre making are bad’ cut back to two posts ago #‘anyone who believes in choice feminism are fucking STUPID BITCHES who are being MANIPULATED by MEN and actually secretly you HATE YOURSELF’ #like do you hear yourself. do you hear yourself??? #adding later 3: #see and im aware im being hypocritical of my beliefs. somewhat. im being somewhat hypocritical #because im commenting on other womens choices on how the express themselves and how they experience the world #but if i have to see that terf rhetoric behind a gauzy sheet floating in the wind one more time i Might take my head clean off

[emmitaaa4]

Addressing some fandom BS inconsistencies

Gwyn was shadow mommy, Az was shadow daddy, they were gonna have shadow babies with her extra super pliable bones.

I audibly chocked when I read this @nikethestatue (btw everything said in this post was on point). No but seriously this is how they sound, too many of them insisting that there is nothing wrong with basing the likelihood of a ship on who has the more suitable uterus to be with a man... cause supposedly they're just picking up on the hints SJM wrote for them? She likes babies for HEAs so ofc children are the end all be all of a relationship, plus there's absolutely no way that she could ever write an adoption plot SJM is literally adopted and has done it in other series. Selective reading strikes again.

A minimum amount of critical thinking would tell you that 1) the infamous *magical uterus change* scene was about nessian (& feysand), not about any ship; 2) if SJM had written Nesta changing Elain's uterus, it would have given too much away, not to mention 3) how disturbing/violating it would have been for Nesta to change her sister's reproductive anatomy WITHOUT HER CONSENT?! None of it makes sense narratively; my girl Nes would never, especially given the trauma they both suffered from having their bodily autonomy--and so much more--ripped away by the Cauldron.

This argument is so trivialized that I see it every other day on reddit/tiktok/*insert media app*, and yet elriels are the toxic side of the fandom? The ones whom people are allowed to insult, to ridicule for theories all made in good fun, the women that are villainized over a difference of opinion? Don't get me wrong, there's assholes on both sides and people keep calling one another variations of delulu (and the nastier personal attacks). But by painting this fandom-wide villain there is such a lack of accountability for the plethora of harmful talking points spread by other portions of the fandom. (I've been silently reading the anti-elain & anti-elriel tags for like a year, and I'm on tiktok. Yes, I have self-destructive tendencies).

Anyways.

I never understood either how people ever actually thought (or well still think) that gwynriel would happen BEFORE elucien?? It makes no sense logically, narratively, or in terms of characterization & the arc she's set up for Elain, Azriel, and Lucien. Yet it took one controversial bonus chapter for people to decenter Elain in her own story, that is make her choice of romantic partner--which SJM spent 3+ books setting up--Azriel's. It took one bonus chapter that soo many readers are still unaware of, to brush Elain off as a "sexual object" Az is using to distract himself until his therapist-extraordinaire Gwyn comes in and heals him all up. Because ofc she will: she's badass and not the "passive and weak and boring" Eplain (aka "Plant" or "brain dead gardener"), she fits the YA archetype of the spunky warrior-girl so she can handle his darkness, and SJM supposedly spent time fleshing her out because she wrote her as a LI for Azriel; she's made for him, she is what he needs to grow (I actually enjoyed Gwyn's character btw, just pointing out how silly it all sounds). “Next book is a love triangle between Elain/Az/Gwyn” “Elain will turn evil or is secretly evil”. So you're telling me that SJM would pit Elain & Gwyn against each other in a love triangle over a man... all because of a necklace that was not even mentioned once in the actual books? Please, let's be logical for a second.

All this because instead of reading the bonus chapter in the context of the books, some people are reading the books in the context of the bonus chapter. Which now that I think of it is probably why so many people mischaracterize Az the way they do--because yes we know enough of his character to know half of the stuff the fandom diagnoses him with is questionable. Azriel? Entitled incel x fuckboy hybrid (gotta be the first of his kind, minute slay ig)? Interesting tell me more. No joke I saw a semi-popular post on here where a gwynriel said they read the bonus WITHOUT HAVING READ ANY OF THE BOOKS. I'm sorry, ship wars are silly and believe it or not idc who ppl ship, but it makes it hard to take some of the things they say seriously.

All this to say that the fandom isn't even debating the right thing. If you consider everything SJM has said in her interviews:

(she's been planting seeds for Nesta & Elain's book since acomaf; she knows who she is writing the first 2 books about + is keeping things open for the 3rd one--with 5 different ship options--which automatically rules out "Elain will close the series"; she said she's doing research for Elain's book in the ACOFAS bonus & there's seeds for future bookS in acofas; all she said recently about her beloved *heroines* and the themes of fate/true love/choice she finds *very* interesting & wants to discuss)

and if you also consider all she's written in the actual books (elain's characterization + the overarching plot in general & how she fits into it), then it's pretty evident that Elain's book is next.

The question then would be who is the MMC / 2nd PoV in her book, aka would acotar 5 be an elucien or an elriel story? Because logically, gwynriel was always a consequence of elucien. I honestly do not understand how people don't see that.

Oh and they always think they're gagging elriels with the "obviously Azriel is the next MC" as if elriels aren't saying the same thing? And we're the ones twisting info and not making sense. It's just funny at this point.

---sidenote: I realize that this post generalizes some things, and I just wanted to say that I have interacted with lovely eluciens / people on either side of this headache of a ship war. My hard limit is Elain haters though... back off I say 🤺 BACK OFF 🤺

---sidenote 2: I would have written this as a reblog except im not entirely sure how tumblr works and I get no visibility from them rip.

#please be so for real rn #elain archeron #anti gwynriel #anti nonsense #acotar 5 #elriel #pro elriel #pro elain #pro azriel #sjm interview #azriel bonus chapter #nesta archeron #elucien

[fangirleaconmigo]

You’ve probably gotten tons of asks about it already but are you going to make posts talking about the new season now or wait till part 2 comes out?

Hello dear! I tend to think and mull for a long time because my brain is slow.

If anyone wants my preliminary thoughts that are subject to change after seeing the rest of the season, here’s a few things:

SEASON THREE SPOILERS

Canon bi/pan bard is fantastic so far. It feels very natural, the emotions, the chemistry is there, very special and particular connections, etc.

Joey said he had a lot of input and it shows, because it does feel personal. I love it. Anyone who listened to my Whiskey with Witcher podcast interview knows that I’m a big fan of that development.

He also talked up Hugh Skinner and I was like well we shall see. People always talk up their scene partners because they know them and care about them which is GREAT but that doesn’t always actually translate to the screen for the viewer.

But Hugh WAS amazing. Joey was not exaggerating his expressiveness, passion, and chemistry in the role.

Hm. Let’s see what else.

I really appreciate that they haven’t ‘dropped’ the centrality of the Yen and Tissaia relationship. I’m not a fan of the Vilgefortz Tissaia romance addition. But at least they haven’t minimized how important her other relationships are.

Tissaia and Yen is the relationship that hooked me into the witcher to begin with. It had complications and dramatic tension and I was intrigued by how it changed the two women. It is so central to me, and I'm glad it still is for the show.

Ciri: It’s a whole new Ciri. Very different from the books. It’s not worse, it’s just different. In the books she just wanted to be left in peace and wanted nothing to do with being royalty or the motherhood and reproduction that this entails.

She has like a rage moment of almost riding into Nilfgaard at one point but she comes to her senses.

But the show cast her much older and this is just a different story. It’s about leadership. She wants to be a queen. Like I said. Very very different Ciri.

I have always believed you can change things you're adapting, in fact you have to. The test is, what you change it to has to be compelling enough in its own right that people aren't sitting there bitter about what they are missing out on. And I think her internal struggle and arc has potential. We'll see how it plays out the rest of the season.

The stuff about experimenting on the girls and messing with their heads and mushing their body parts into one is obviously brand new as well. I don’t really get it so far, but we’ll see how it plays out.

I believe it's ideas adapted from Season of Storms but I've only read that book one time, so I'll have to go look again.

The plot line has potential. Again, the story in the books was about bodily autonomy and the villains were all trying to basically turn girls and women into breeding machines. The lab was discovered and was horrific in a different way.

So what they’ve done is a bit more “fantasy” and I think it is potentially a much better choice for the kind of show they’re doing. I don't think I would want to see TWN put in a bunch of extreme and graphic reproductive and sexual violence and torture. I think you have to know the kind of show you're making and have a consistent tone. So I'm open to something else, for sure. But I’ll reserve judgment until I see how they wrap it up.

I loved all of the Ciri and Yen stuff. Their conversation and scenes are great. I know for a lot of people it's sort of hollow after S2. Since I made the decision not to quit the show, I have to let that go or I'll be miserable. So, I'm blocking out and denying a lot of season two.

Season three I'm enjoying. Yes, it's camp and silly in a lot of ways. Of course it's a flatter more simplistic version of the story. But we are on season three folks. If that is offensive to people, they should have quit already. Hatewatching is bad for the soul and constant hate and hostility is bad for the fandom. If ya can't have fun with it, time to move on.

For me, I had a great time watching it. I'm actually re-watching it already. I didn't rewatch season two at all (except for the first ep) so that's a good sigh already.

How I judge the season's writing as a whole will have to happen after the second part. And I'll let you know then if you send me another ask.

What I'm looking forward to the rest of the season:

The lodge. I think Cassie Clare is a fabulous Philippa but I want to see her come into her own self. I hope that's coming.

Keira Metz's brass knuckles.

FRINGILLA. We've seen so little of her so far, but what is there has intrigued me. Where are they going with her? I hope she's a bigger part of the last three eps.

MERIHART I want Philippa x Triss so badly ghhhhhh.

Milva. I can't wait to meet Milva.

Jaskier x Radovid I hope is a satisfying arc, and I believe it will be.

Geralt and Jaskier in Brokilon oh I hope they do it justice.

WILL WE SEE THE UNICORN??

Thanks for dropping into the ol ask box hun!

#the witcher #twn #the witcher season 3 #the witcher spoilers

[runawaymun]

So I have written a lot about food and food insecurity in the aftermath of trauma and I focused mainly on Maedhros, Húrin (who there is actually some canon examples with), and Morwen (a different kind of trauma) and I know you posted some about Maedhros too so I was wondering if you had thoughts on how this affected Celebrían. I really love all your ideas and writing on her and I had some of my own thoughts but I wanted to ask!

-@outofangband (sorry if this is disorganized, I wrote it right after waking up)

aaaaaa!

@outofangband 

Thank you for the opportunity to ramble about this!

Buckle up. This ain't a fun one, guys. And it's so so so long.

CW: discussions of suicidal ideation, force-feeding, eating disorders, & unhealthy relationships with food due to trauma under the cut.

Celebrían post-torment kind of lives rent-free in my brain. It actually really bugs me how little I see of her in the fandom from this period in her life, and usually when I do see content about this it's about how her torment affected Elrond which is very unfair to her. It's her trauma, after all.

I tend to describe Celebrían's relationship with food post-torment with three words: repulsion, obsession, and disinterest. (Unlike, say, Maedhros where I would describe his relationship with food post-Angband as being characterized mostly by insecurity, anxiety, and compulsion).

In regards to Cel, let's talk about repulsion first.

Food Repulsion

The issue of Cel's repulsion to food post-torment is really complex. The first and simplest part is that it's strictly biological. I really don't think she was given much to eat during her torment that would have actually agreed with her. When the body goes for extended periods of time without food, the stomach shrinks and becomes very sensitive, and it takes a while for it to acclimate to digesting things again. This also feeds into disinterest-- it was genuinely hard for her to want anything to eat when she was ill post-torment-- in the "nothing sounds agreeable and everything I eat makes me nauseous" sort of way.

And then there's the less fun aspect of why I suspect she has repulsion to food post-torment, and that comes down to force-feeding.

Tolkien mentions (I think) more than once instances of orcs force-feeding disagreeable substances to their captives. Chiefly I'm thinking of Merry & Pippin and the weird "orc draught" the Uruk-hai gave them. I can't think of any other specific instances currently off the top of my head, but I remember reading that part as a kid and being viscerally disgusted and freaked out, and that part still haunts me every time I read it. Force-feeding is such an intense form of psychological control. I'm thinking of the times during the women's suffrage movement when women went on hunger strikes and then were force-fed with tubes/funnels. It's a violation of bodily autonomy. It's even worse when you're being forced to consume a substance which may have an altering effect.

And it's clear from the scene with Merry & Pippin that the orc draught had an altering effect and tbh I always read it as being something the orcs enjoyed doing.

And just in general, orcs seem to enjoy torture and infliction of distress. So firstly, I believe Cel was force-fed this orc-draught, seeing as it has an "invigorating" effect and possibly would have essentially made her last longer to be toyed with and tortured. Secondly, I think they probably force-fed her some gross stuff (i.e. stuff orcs like eating. Raw flesh/blood etc.) because they found her reaction funny.

So naturally, this is traumatic, and naturally, Cel isn't really going to have an appetite for anything but, perhaps, water when the twins get her home.

It was very difficult for Elrond to get her to take any medicines. She logically knows this is her husband and that he's very safe and that he's trying to help her, but Cel isn't going to want anything that may alter her mental or physical state. On top of that, being fed anything is going to be triggering. This is made especially worse in the very likely event that during her early recovery she has to be fed, which is re-traumatizing.

This is distressing for everyone around her, obviously, especially Elrond who is only trying to help. This is especially distressing for Cel because she knows, she knows that everyone is trying to help her and that she has to eat to stay alive, but the act of swallowing has become so utterly traumatic that it probably sets off a gag reflex and causes her to vomit most (if not all) of what she's being given.

This takes a long time to work through.

-

Obsession (and Compulsion)

Okay let's talk about obsession. For Cel, the repulsion actually feeds into the later obsessive and compulsive behaviors which she develops to cope with her repulsion and anxiety. This is going to be a shorter section because I just don't want to linger on this for very long.

Once she is able to keep food and medicine down, she develops an obsession around making sure she knows exactly what she is eating and exactly how much she is eating. She doesn't develop a hoarding issue like Maedhros did. She begins to pick apart and count everything she's eating. It takes hours to finish even the smallest meals. As this progresses she refuses to eat anything that she hasn't seen prepared in front of her or she hasn't prepared herself. She isn't being intentionally difficult, it's that the anxiety around not knowing what's in her food makes her physically ill & makes her reflexively vomit.

This carries over into Valinor.

She doesn't eat at group functions anymore. She doesn't eat meals with others anymore. She is aware that her behavior doesn't make sense, that it's "strange", that it's unhealthy. She has a great deal of shame around this that she can't manage to get rid of. Very few people in Valinor understand this trauma and she has no desire to talk about it. So she just doesn't socially eat anymore. It's very isolating.

This eases with time and intentional help and work. Again, I'm not sure if she ever really heals herself of this anxiety. That shit lingers with you.

-

Disinterest

Now let's talk about disinterest.

This may seem to be in conflict with obsession, but it's not.

This goes hand-in-hand with her repulsion, but mostly it's caused by intense depression, and is a problem that gets worse and worse in the months leading up to her departure.

As it becomes more and more clear that Cel just....isn't getting better, she really begins to feel guilty, I think, of the toll that she's taking on her family. She feels like a burden. She doesn't want to cause them any more distress. She is tired and ill and sick at heart.

So as things progress, she just...eats less and less. Part of this is because she just hates food and hates what it makes her feel and hates the distress all of her trauma around food causes everyone around her, and a good chunk comes down to the nausea and visceral repulsion.

The other part is that she just...

doesn't want to be here anymore.

And Elrond just will not let her go. He's trying so hard to help her heal. And Cel feels guilty because that's really unfair of her, she feels, to not work so hard herself when he is putting his entire being into saving her.

This is when their marriage bond starts to fracture (I don't think it ever broke entirely, but I think there was a moment where they were on the verge). Intentionally, on Cel's part. She doesn't want to cause him pain. She starts distancing her from him as much as she can.

And this is when she really, truly stops eating.

Because she can't bear to tell him that she wants to die. How could she do that to him? When he's doing everything he can to save her? Literally giving her pieces of himself? I headcannon he was using Vilya as a last resort, here, at risk to himself. It's literally breaking him and Cel can't bear that. Not when she just feels numb. She doesn't feel like she's worth saving and she doesn't know how to ask him to stop trying.

So she just...stops eating.

And she withers and withers and withers.

And she begins to fade.

And that's when Elrond truly starts to panic.

I think there's a moment where he asks her, very bluntly, if she wants to die.

And Celebrían very quietly says yes.

And I think that destroys him.

I think it's Celeborn, actually, over everyone that suggests that she sails. Because there's really nothing else to be done. Either she sails, or she fades. Maybe she fades anyway. Either way, no one can save her except Celebrían herself.

And there is one tiny feeble spark somewhere deep inside Celebrían that wants to live. So she tells her husband, and her mother, and her father, and her children goodbye, and she leaves everything she has ever known to sail to a place she's only heard about in her bedtime stories.

Does she ever fully recover from any of this?

No, I don't think she does. I don't think her appetite every fully comes back to her. I think she's always just a little too-thin. I think she still has a difficult time eating with others. I think she just can't eat certain foods anymore. But she manages, and she heals, and she lives. That's the important part. That's what matters.

Despite it all, Celebrían lives.

#celebrian #elrond #galadriel #celeborn #celebrian's torment #meta #headcannons #lotr #silm #out of unform

[hxhhasmysoul]

Is Jujutsu Kaisen feminism for 15yo boys?

The short answer is yes, so you can skip the rest of this ridiculously long post.

____________________

Disclaimers:

If you haven’t read the manga up until chapter 204 you’ll see spoilers here, also you probably won’t know what/who I’m talking about at times.

I have adhd, this is rambly af, this post is actually for me to organise my thoughts and not a hot take I want to convince others to buy into. but anyone is welcome to read if they have the patience.

They/them pronouns for Akutami because if the cursed cat isn’t explicitly assigning a gender to themself, hell if I will. 

They/them pronouns for Kenny. 

Now let’s watch this post age like dairy. I so hope it won’t, Gege please don’t disappoint me.

____________________

Let’s go. 

There are a few things that make me obsessed with juju. 

1. The fact that its plot and story structure are my wet dream - all these factions and individuals who are doing their own thing. All of these plots intertwining and coming together.

2. My sweet child Yuuji. *coughs* I mean, juju’s focus on characters. I’m very normal about Yuuji, I fucking swear. 

3. The art, it’s simply beautiful but I also have thoughts.

4. The bs power system, I live for that stuff.

5. It’s aggressively progressive. 

So lets focus on point 5.

Is juju as politically left as I am? Fuck no, not even close. There are things I wish it was braver on, like for instance the queerness. Fuck, braver on its leftism and feminism too. Is it very current and openly and aggressively progressive? Very much so.

If we look at the biggest antagonists of juju we get:

1. Toxic masculinity personified. A hyper-individualist. A 1000yo manosphere youtuber. A guy who thinks that strength should dictate hierarchy. A man who thinks he can hurt whomever he wants for his own pleasure and amusement because everyone is beneath him. A man who doesn’t care for anyone else but himself. A mass murderer and nihilist. 

2. A 1000yo person of unknown gender who presents most often as a man. An eugenicist. Someone entitled to women’s bodies and their reproductive rights. Someone who thinks their own children are only as valuable as they fulfil their ambitions. Someone who thinks they can hurt anyone because their goals are superior, because people are instrumental to them. And also a fucking classist piece of shit. (honestly idk why half of the fandom reacted surprised to the hyper capitalist moment in the recent chapters, as if in their first scene in the entire manga they didn’t say: this is a nuisance but at least it’s the poors that are being burnt to death before my eyes. - Gege didn’t need to add this line there, it’s not relevant to the conversation that is happening then but the line is there anyway.)

3. Two awfully sexist clans which have huge superiority complexes and are built on bloodlines and traditions and breeding for power. 

4. A bunch of mostly faceless old people who pull the strings from the shadows and do everything in the name of the status quo, constantly using tradition as an excuse. Who are afraid of the new, of the changes in society of new technologies. They won’t even accept them when they create powerful sorcerers. 

5. A male presenting personification of human hate and fear of one another. Who again, feels entitled to the bodies of others and doesn’t respect the bodily autonomy of others. Who’s a destructive and cruel nihilist. 

6. A young man who got radicalised into fascism because he was faced with the horrors of the status quo, of toxic tradition and backwater thinking and drew the wrong conclusions as to how to fix it.

On the other side we get kids and tired and/or silly millennials. And isn’t that just like real life, where the inaction and misdeeds of the previous generations blows up in the faces of today’s teens.

1. Teenagers. Teenagers who either don’t have family connections and come from lower classes. Or outcasts from their rich and powerful families. Children betrayed by traditions and the status quo. Children used or targeted by old people, ostracised, disrespected and violated. Children who have to suffer and die because the old people are only concentrating on maintaining the status quo. 

2. Gojou, this ex edgy teen who saw his bf (I won’t police how you read that) get redpilled and radicalised into fascism. It was all fun and games, stanning the joker and tyler durden until Getou decided to seriously go full on fasc with it and Gojou was like: man for real? I thought we were memeing here. So then Gojou turned into one of those “this is how I got off the far right pipeline” videos. Gojou is actually this rich privileged boy but he’s trying, he really is taking his best shot at progressivism. (sealed)

3. A feminist who’s calling out and fighting worthless old farts who feel entitled to women’s bodies. And who wants to change the world to make life better for everyone. 

4. A socially conscious man disillusioned with capitalism who takes a lot of responsibility for other people. (deceased)

5. A victim of eugenics who tries to be a good older brother to his brothers, also victims of eugenics. (the only one here who’s actually over 30)

6. Some other, less important, decent people in their twenties.

There are few people over 30 in juju that deserve any respect.

1. Headmaster Yaga, single dad. Does felting as a hobby. (deceased)

2. Yoshino Nagi, good single mum. (deceased)

3. Iori Utahime, a woman trying her best to do right by the teens despite having to work with Gojou.

4. Higuruma Hiromi, an idealist, mentally broken by the realities of the criminal justice system. Hobby: 5 min therapy sessions. 

____________________

Juju isn’t in any way shy about the fact that we should not respect elders when they fucking destroy everything. It’s established very early on that regressive traditionalists suck. That passive adults suck. That the status quo sux. That it should be the duty of adults to protect the children and not to make the world worse for everyone. That educating the youth and instilling different values in them is what can save us all, if we’re not beyond saving. That we need social change. We even get teen Noritoshi’s story, a cautionary tale about respectability, about trying to satisfy the requirements of the system to protect your own and how that is doomed to fail. And my leftist soul resonates with all that. 

____________________

So in this clear leftist propaganda there is also feminism.

And Gege does their best feminism when they aren’t trying, especially when they aren’t trying to verbalise it. My suspicion is that with this much internalised leftism Gege has internalised a lot of feminism but at a  conscious level the fact that Gege was most likely socialised male takes its toll. 

What I mean by that is that Nobara’s girlboss rant at Momo is weak. But I will give it a pass because Nobara is 16 and nothing about her screams discourse junkie so you know, it fits her character. Because even at it its least inspired the feminism in juju deserves a passing grade. Gege is trying.

There’s also the sad truth of shounen that women just aren’t meant to be prioritised in it, that it’s not the genre expectation. The fact that Maki gets so much focus and page time, that she has her own fucking arc, it’s already a lot for shounen. The fact that she’s built and now also permanently disfigured and the dudebros and weebs still worship the ground she walks on is a fucking achievement in itself. Proof that if you write a female character well you can take away her standard beauty and not tank her popularity. It’d be still much harder to make her not typically pretty from the start and achieve this but culture changes one step at a time. I wish we were there but we aren’t so I’m going to appreciate what I can get.

Maki is both verbalised and implicit feminism. Verbalised because she fucking slaughters a whole fucking clan of misogynists. It’s not subtle. Implicit because of her appearance and personality. She’s written like a male character but not meaning that she’s masculine or that she could be replaced in the narrative by a man. No, she has a narrative arc of her own, she’s written with agency and with no regard for making her personality be pleasing or oriented towards others. And her story is specifically a story of a woman in the world of jujutsu. 

____________________

Generally, in most cases, if you try to apply the feminist lens to a shounen manga you’ll just make yourself sad. You can do it for some shounen characters or plotlines and get something nice but you need to be very careful not to try to generalise that onto the whole work. My enjoyment of a lot of titles is dependant on my very conscious choice to rein in my feminism and leftism. 

With juju, though, with juju you’re safe. You can do it. You can go for it. It’s not going to be the most radical and mind-blowing experience ever but it’s possible.

Because the female characters aren’t where the most of the feminism is. They can’t be, it’s a shounen and they don’t get enough pagetime. The verbalised feminism is very clear in how the villains are framed, how much misogyny you can find among the evil characters. The implicit feminism, the better one, is very strong in the young male characters. 

Unlike in a lot of hyper violent media targeted at boys, in juju you never have these lines about what a man should be. Or what it means to be a man, especially a true man. What is most important is that nothing like that is ever said to a teenage boy. On the side we’re meant to root for we get a lot of different men and none of them are labelled as “true”. They are there for readers to identify with, to model behaviour after. And because no teen in the manga has his masculinity questioned then no reader will have to question his. Juju won’t contribute to such insecurity for anyone, an insecurity that can turn violent irl. 

____________________

Girls in juju are people.

What’s more, all the teen guys in juju have extremely normal relationships with the girls around them. They just interact with them without any exaggerated awkwardness or this “girls are strange, we can’t bond with them unless we want to date them”. Among the teens, the new generation, the hope for the future, there’s no separation built between men and women. Not through words and not through actions.  

The nonsexual, organic friendship, built on idiot to idiot communication, Yuuji and Nobara have, gives me life. And it happens despite Yuuji not understanding Nobara at first. Because it doesn’t matter that she’s different from him, they don’t dwell on it, they don’t try to make the differences into a big thing, into a rift. There’s no big arc of them working out their differences because these differences aren’t artificially blown up to underline some core differences between men and women. They can fail to understand each other totally but they can still be friends, they can still vibe with one another, care for one another. Femininity and masculinity don’t need to be some issues to deal with while forming a friendship between a guy and a girl. 

It’s fascinating how Yuuji fighting together with Megumi isn’t half as exciting and organic as when he fights together with Nobara. Their strengths and powers compliment each other so well. I’m actually angry that Gege didn’t let them fight Mahito together longer. Even if they would’ve done to Nobara the same thing they did. Why not let them be epic together again? (I’m also super angry at what they did to Nobara, she better come back, fucking hell)

And it’s a pattern too. Despite Yuuji being very much socialised as a guy in a very patriarchal and sexist society, so much so that he has a type at 15 and hangs bikini posters on his walls, he hasn't turned girls into aliens in his mind. They are still just people in his head. When Yuuji interacts with a real woman the male socialisation isn’t deeply rooted enough to hinder him. It’s never an issue.

____________________

Toudou

Toudou tries to do this very masculine bonding thing with Yuuji and Yuuji is super confused by it. Because Yuuji’s relationships aren’t built on the concept of masculinity. And I mean Yuuji bonds with Toudou eventually because it’s Yuuji but we are shown the struggle when with Nobara or Megumi or Junpei it just happens. Also Yuuji is the only one who bonds with Toudou but that’s because Yuuji is compassion. 

Toudou is generally disliked and his dumb male posturing contributes to that. Also in the Japanese context it’s very clear that Toudou is an unserious person and that’s how he’s meant to be perceived. If you have any doubt about that, the juju fanbook is there for you where Gege is very clear about that. Basically the idol thing is there to paint Toudou as immature. The whole conversation Megumi has with Toudou is a very clear lesson for teen boys. Be like Megumi and girls will like you, if you are a Toudou you’re a joke. You can be built and powerful and clever and still be a joke and girls won’t like you.

I like Toudou a lot btw, I actually think it’s funny that an 18yo boy thinks he reached some deeper truth about people because he knows what a fetish or kink is and he’s tactless enough to ask openly about it. It’s fucking hilarious but also some teen boys just be like that unironically. But I also like him because of how his character is framed and how he functions in the story. Because Toudou gives another important lesson to teen boys. A lesson about rejection. In the story he makes up in his head we see him confessing his feelings to Takada and she turns him down. And he just takes it. This is such an important message. In Japan stalking is a huge problem, stalkers murdering their victims is a problem. Men who feel entitled to women in such a violent way. And here we have a guy who gets rejected and takes the L with grace. And all he wants is for his best friend to console him. 

____________________

I’m very normal about Yuuji.

So the balls on Gege to name their typically shounen protag “calm compassion”, or maybe “endless humanity”, “endless compassion”, “quiet humanity”, all of the above? More?

Gojou says that to be a sorcerer one needs to be crazy. And he says that Yuuji has a few screws loose from the start. The thing is that yes, Yuuji is odd but not in the way the rest of the sorcerers are. So far in the manga Yuuji has never entered the state of mind that to my understanding Gojou is thinking about when he talks about being crazy. What I think Gojou means is this state of unhinged glee during the fight. And the ability to compartmentalise the fights and the kills. 

So far in his fights Yuuji has been neutral, proud of himself when he was doing well, hyper focused, frustrated, desperate, depressed and filled with all-consuming rage. Never filled with unhinged glee. And he hasn’t compartmentalised any fight, any failure or any kill, not one, they all seep into a huge ball of guilt inside him. And it’s his kills and Sukuna’s together. Yuuji’s compassion is actively destroying him from the inside. Yuuji can’t disconnect from his humanity and that’s a basic job requirement for a sorcerer. 

____________________

Yuuji constantly shows how much emotional intelligence he has. When he defuses the situation with Junpei at the school. When Megumi finds out about Tsumiki going under the bridge. When he’s with Chousou. When he puts his depression on hold to help Megumi during the culling game. He shows understanding, emotional support, physical contact and prioritises the emotions of others over his own. 

Compassion, empathy, responsiveness towards others, willingness to adjust and accommodate aren’t stereotypically masculine traits. No, they are culturally feminine in many places around the world, including Japan. 

Yuuji is also passive and reactive despite being stronger than normal people, and that too is culturally more feminine than masculine. Yuuji doesn’t really have much of the shounen protag drive. It can be lit in him in the form of resilience or determination or rage but it’s not self-sustaining, reactive not proactive

And speaking of Japan and East Asia, what Yuuji is displaying can’t be written off as collectivism either. Because these reactions are personal, they aren’t towards the society at large. They aren’t giri aka a specifically culturally Japanese sense of duty, or any other of several similar concepts. There is no sense of duty or obligation in what Yuuji does, not on a group level. Yuuji says that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if people got hurt because he didn’t try to get rid of Sukuna. For him it’s not because it’s the moral thing to do, or the right thing to do but because he’s concerned about the suffering of those people on this very empathetic level. As Nanami says: he genuinely gets upset on behalf of others. 

____________________

That might be why Yuuji isn’t really that popular as a character. Maybe that’s why people prefer Megumi who’s more typically masculine, stoic, distant, intellectual but also proactive and not reactive in his violence and values.

A lot of people consider Yuuji weak. They complain about how much he loses and how in most of his fights he gets carried by other characters, how they are actually the winning factor and not him. 

I actually like that a lot. I think it makes the story interesting, it makes Yuuji interesting that he’s at his best when he’s not alone, that he’s actually doing best when he’s support. That his strength is in how he compliments others. I honestly don’t want him to change into a more typical shounen protagonist. Thematically the way his fights go suits him perfectly because humans are a social species, we thrive on cooperation. And if Yuuji is boundless humanity he shouldn’t stand alone. 

____________________

I’m very normal about Yuuji so it turned into a post about him. I swear this wasn’t the plan. The plan was to write about leftist propaganda. The other guys in juju are actually really cool too. Like Megumi, him constantly trying to figure out his values and reconcile what’s happening around him with them is great. Yuuta with his need to belong and justify himself is amazing. Chousou the family oriented sap (please survive baby). Hakari who said fuck you to the conservatives even though he wasn’t so well positioned as Gojou and it resulted in him getting ostracised. I’m not going to shout out everyone or go deeper into these characters but I really like how there isn’t one type of masculinity in juju. 

I don’t know how much these are conscious choices by Gege, or how much it’s just their internalised leftism seeping through. But it’s nice. It feels good to read. And I hope that because the messaging isn’t always as didactic as with the Zen’in or the Kamo clans, that it’ll go down well and actually be this tiny crumb of feminism in the minds of 15yo boys who read it. And with how hype juju is atm, I hope that overt leftism will strengthen in the pop cultural mainstream directed at boys. And with it feminism.  

____________________

Could juju be better?

Of course, there’s no perfect work of art. No author is perfect and perfectly enlightened. No work is ever going to 100% match with anyone’s politics, sensibilities or expectations. etc etc. But I really think juju already does a lot. The fact that it’s open to a feminist reading is a lot. And I appreciate it for it.

I really wish juju was better on the queer stuff but I’m wary of assigning blame here. Idk if it’s Gege who misunderstands stuff and is uninformed and crude. Or is it because they write a shounen series for Shounen Jump a corporation which is averse to risk. 

I really wish Kirara had a canon gender and identity. I wish Gege made an official call on Kenny’s gender as they did with Tengen. I wish Gege also clearly stated that Kenny is Yuuji’s mum because the fandom cishets are really twisting themselves into pretzels trying to come up with theories that the mum is actually some woman controlled by Kenny and not Kenny. I wish Gege made NobaMaki canon instead of drawing fanart of the ship and pretending it’s not what it looks like. And even though ItaFushi leaves me mostly cold I wish Megumi’s answer proved to be what all the itafushis headcanon it to be, even if it was to prove to be one sided. I wish I wish I wish.

#off topic #rambling #my ramblings #jjk #collecting my thoughts #i write out my adhd i'm sorry #i didn't even talk about character designs but i ran out of steam #i have extreme juju brainrot #this is the tip of the iceberg #i'm sure i forgot half the things i wanted to say #i will regret this in the morning

[wolves-willow]

Made a post about spaying/neutering your animals because I was sick of seeing Facebook posts about kittens dumped on the side of the road. And a family member comments,

“My cat has a strict my body my choice rule so she likes her kittens 🤷🏼‍♀️”

Let me FUCKING tell you. That bitch was cut quicker than a rampant toddler’s hair once they grab a pair of scissors for the first time.

I’ve made it abundantly clear that I stand with Roe v. Wade. I am pro-choice. I am pro-abortion. I am pro-women’s rights are human rights.

So I made a giant post urging those that disagree with me, even family members, to get fucked.

Remember: blood does not equal family. Cut those fascist bigots OFF.

Here it is, if you’d like to repost for yourself on other social media platforms.

——>

Because it obviously needs said again: agree to disagree doesn’t apply here! I’m not discussing whether chocolate or vanilla is better! I’m talking about HUMAN RIGHTS. If you don’t think abortion is okay, that’s your right to choose not to have one. It does not give you permission to force that choice on someone else.

But if we’re just going to throw bodily autonomy out the window, here’s a few laws we should enstate:

1. If someone needs an organ and you have a match, you HAVE to give it to them. You don’t have a choice. The government says so.

2. If you want to get a piercing or tattoo, you’re not allowed. You can’t alter your body without express government permission.

3. Women must stay home. Women can’t vote. Women can’t work. Women can’t own property. Any woman without a husband is a harlot. Since the government says we’re just baby factories.

4. Children out of wedlock? Whore. You’ve just been defaced in the eyes of society. It doesn’t matter if he’s your boyfriend and you’re in love. You’re not married, so it’s automatically wrong. Get married and MAYBE you’ll earn your place back with the Lord.

5. Any and all surguries must be government approved. You can’t decide for yourself, even if it’s lifesaving. No exceptions. Y’know… since they own our bodies.

Want me to go on?

I will not, under any circumstances, agree to disagree on this. By approving the overturning of Roe. v. Wade, you are actively engaging in my oppression as a woman and a fellow human. Once again, if you do, fuck you.

I did not grow up watching heroes in movies, tv shows, and books stand up for what was right only to be silent now that there’s something I believe in. I will be as loud as I want because being silent for the sake of avoiding conflict is what created some of histories greatest atrocities. And allowing the government to control my body will not become one of them.

There is no room for jokes or snide remarks. This is MY page, and I will post as I please. I don’t need fascist input and bigotry.

Roll your eyes, mutter under your breath… and hit the unfriend button while you’re at it. 👋🏻

#roe v wade #Supreme Court #abortion #abortion rights #womens rights #women’s rights #human rights #equality #United States government #United States #women’s healthcare

[lostandfem]

basically when are radfems going to accept sex non conforming females and not treat us like we’re ugly or bad or wrong or like… damaged. i feel like i have to stick with the trans community despite the biosexism and bullshit (trans women don’t get periods male socialization is real there i said it 😤) bc the alternative is a group that would not see me exercise my bodily autonomy/ would prefer me to be constantly disassociating and then psychotically delusional two weeks a month for the rest of my life just because that’s my “natural fate”. there’s no freedom for me in a group that wants to restrict how females can like… *be*, yknow? not that they’re all like that bc i saw ur risk reduction top surgery post and was like “ah a radfem Understands” again sorry for dumping im just 😭🤡 in a weird ass place rn each of my detrans-retrans experiences has involved me trying to convince myself to align neatly with radfems or with TRAs but man i simply don’t. i’m a female with sex dysphoria that i believe I deserve to find freedom from especially after having tried literally every antidepressant, mood stabilizers, and even lithium 😭 the tras want me to absolve myself of my femaleness and like… “shut up and let trans women speak” but like BRO THEYRE MALE WOMEN THATS WHY THEY ARE ALLOWED OR EVEN ENCOURAGED TO SPEAK AT ALL!! so im just suffering. suffering suffering

no its fine i dont mind if you dump. partially why i leave anons on lol. i was sick of the whole “being male/female isnt real, only gender is real” stuff too. what im getting is that you dont agree with how the trans community is running, but you dont think theres another option for you other than transitioning. and honestly, if it really is the only option, do it. i personally dont agree that transition should be the only cure for sex dysphoria. the health risks from transitioning need to be taken into consideration when considering it as a treatment, and personally i think that because of that one day it shouldnt be an option at all because well have much better treatments. im lucky enough to have gotten some success from therapy, but i know that not everyone will be able to have the same thing. i dont know everything about dysphoria either so all the advice i give about that stuff is from personal experience. but at the end of the day if it really is the only option for you with everything we do know about dysphoria, then do it. i just want people making informed, smart decisions. i also want for one day an effective treatment without that many risks, and for gender identity to stop being a thing in relation to these treatments (just sex dysphoria)

#asks

[bisexualsdeservebetter]

I really don’t see why you’re so upset. I scrolled through your blog, saw some stuff I agreed with and thought “hey, this person talks a lot about bi issues, maybe they’ll have some insight into this debate I’ve been dragged into regarding me being bi. let’s send an ask!” that’s it. and I’m not trying to pester you, I was just clarifying what I saw as a misunderstanding and then expressing why I thought you were being unreasonable in your viewpoint.

speaking of which: you said explicitly that I’m not bi, because I don’t experience attraction regardless of gender. now you’re saying that you define it as “regardless” and as “both homo/hetero” …. so I am bi? what’s the deal here hon?

also, how was my info contradictory? here, I’ll lay it out again: I don’t experience sexual or romantic attraction. I don’t want a romantic relationship, but I might be alright with a sexual relationship/friends with benefits situation. I experience aesthetic attraction toward girls and non-masc-aligned nonbinary people. I identify as bi-oriented aroace. what’s contradictory?

and “You are not any sort of fucking deity, obviously.” yes, obvious….. like the joke you missed, I guess. (in case it’s still unclear: the “am I GOD?!?!” thing was a JOKE, because I was still under the impression that this was a civil conversation between people with some shared opinions and I didn’t want to come off too harsh or serious. don’t worry though, I was cured of that delusion when you started swearing at me 😊)

thanks for reminding me that I shouldn’t randomly assume that people are going to hold a modicum of respect for me as a person. I had forgotten. /gen

-the bi aroace anon

"i scrolled through your blog" did you perhaps look at any of the words in the posts because I've literally expressed all these views before, so I feel like you really could've divined what I'd think if you had taken 2 seconds to think about anything.

You're not bi. If you only like women and woman aligned nb people, you're not bi. I've met gay men who would date man aligned nb people, lesbians who would date women aligned nb people. Can't speak for the straights since we don't really have conversations about sexuality. But yeah, bisexuality is being capable of attraction to ANY GENDER. That's not to say you have to date any specific gender, there's plenty of bi people who choose to date only one. I personally choose to only date men, but I am bisexual because I still have attraction for women even if I don't actually engage in relationships with them. Calling yourself bisexual is a flat out lie.

You want sex, you are not asexual. And if you do not want any sort of relationship, you are not bi in any way shape or form.

I know what jokes are, yes. That wasn't funny, it was stupid.

This was never any sort of conversation. You are an anonymous person on tumblr who clearly never actually wanted to listen to anything I have to say. We are not having a conversation, we never were. If you want to have a conversation with someone, don't send them an essay on anon about shit they've already said they disagree with.

I respect you as a person, as in I think you deserve the same rights and courtesy as any other human being. Bodily autonomy, housing, food, all that. Granted I think you're also self righteous, I don't think you understand bisexuality at all, and I don't think you actually want to.

[crushsung]

♬♬♬

send in a ‘♬‘ and the mun will share a song that they love & why they love it.

basically just stealing songs from my alice playlist for this. because i might as well make this about her. here we go.

headspace by sharon van etten - this song is about intimacy to me. like yes, it is about sex, i'm pretty sure. but i feel like it's more about seeking something deeper through sex. (example, the lines: "i wanted to feel ageless / i wanted to be here") there's a desperation to it, with how repetitive the chorus is. this song is about seeing yourself through someone else's eyes during moment of intimacy and vulnerability, desperately trying to make sense of your identity through someone else. (does this make sense? no? okay, hope this helps.) also it's the song that i find the second most influential to what alice's music sounds like in my head. the first of which is in fact our next song.

(cue transition music)

partner in crime by lucy dacus (spotify singles version) - this is less what alice's music sounds like and more like what her lyrics are, i guess? it's very much about yearning, particularly at a young age, and wanting something that might you might not be ready/mature enough for. the lyrics really paint the scene cinematically, it almost feels like the narrator is naively romanticizing their own situation. that's something that's heavily featured in alice's lyrics because she was writing at such a young age. (example, the lines: "do you love me, do you love me not" almost suggest a childishness.) she was romanticizing her situations while they were happening to her, she still romanticizes her situations on reflection because it's easier than admitting they were traumatic or negative in any way.

glory box by portishead - literally The Song Of All Time, in my opinion. i imagine alice did a cover of this at some point and that lives in my mind rent free. this song is also about sex, i guess. i mean, it is and it isn't. correction: i think it's about a sexual dynamic, with the woman in the relationship trying to gain some agency and ownership over her body. which again, is another recurring theme here at crushsung dot tumblr dot com. anyways, this song is sort of considered a feminist anthem, which i suppose it is if you want to interpret it that way. but in the case where we are applying this song to alice, i think it's less about like "women deserve bodily autonomy and authority in a relationship with a man" and more about like "i will not let anyone else take my body away from me". classic trauma response. i probably have more to say about this song both as its own piece and in relation to alice, but this post is getting way too long.

#diaboluse #* introspection. #* soundtrack.

[bluejay73-yt-va]

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again!

Cis Women (especially Cis wlw/sapphics) need to stop telling trans women what to do with their bodies. At best it’s creepy and insensitive, at worst it’s blatantly transphobic.

I see your posts telling trans women not to shave their bush because you think it’s sexier that way. Stop that. That’s creepy. Nobody loves a chaser. Trans women don’t exist for your (or anyone’s) sexual gratification.

And before you even try hitting me with that “Shaving is unnatural, letting your body hair grow is liberating.” You have to keep in mind that it’s liberating for YOU. That is YOUR opinion. Most trans women, and hell probably even some cis women, find being clean-shaven more liberating, whether that’s liberating from the effects of testosterone and puberty or liberating from the itchiness. The idea of what is liberating for a cis woman is often vastly different compared to what trans women find liberating.

Yes, trans women are just as much women as cis women, but the experiences are vastly different. Just like being a white woman is a vastly different experience than being a black woman which is also vastly different from being a native woman or an Asian woman or a Hispanic woman.

Another thing I’ve seen a lot, don’t tell micromanage your trans woman friends medical procedures. If ya girl doesn’t want any surgery, don’t pressure them to. If they do, don’t pressure them not to. If ya girl wants to get giant-ass bohongologongas, DON’T tell her that she’ll regret getting ones that are too big because they kill your back, that’s not your place. If they regret it, then that’s their problem, but it’s the problem THEY CHOSE to give themselves. It may be a mistake but it is a mistake THEY CHOSE to make. It’s THEIR CHOICE, NOT YOURS! Don’t be condescending about it.

Yes, cis women are experts at being women, you’ve spent your whole lives being one after all, and your help is appreciated in certain aspects of womanhood like fashion or how to manage your period (thank you to all my cis women friends who did that for me, y’all are angels). BUT you are NOT experts on being trans women. You are NOT experts on the trans experience. You are NOT experts on the topic of transitioning. Unless of course you’re a trained medical professional, but in that case you probably already understand that it’s all about the PATIENT’S BODILY AUTONOMY!

[bloodstained-ballgowns]

Things I Loved About Black Widow (2021).

*Spoilers*

Yes it’s been almost two weeks since release. Yes I’ve seen it almost three times now. Yes, all my thoughts are still a jumble. Somewhat ordering them for this post will be difficult.

Honestly, the entire first 53 minutes of this movie is perfect to me. Everything about it. The dialogue, the action, the way it’s able to convey so much without words, how it’s just Natasha, Yelena and Mason, everything is just *chef’s kiss*. (This isn’t to say the remaining 1hr 21mins is bad, it’s just not as perfect as the first act imo)

I have a thing for scores and god bless Lorne Balfe he really understood the assignment on this one. If you haven’t already, take a few minutes to listen to his composition, specifically ‘Natasha’s Lullaby’. I love when you can hear a story in music and I think this score does that really effectively.

Nat speaking Russian! Nat speaking Russian! The way she reverts back to it in the opening scene when she’s scared! I wish we’d gotten more of it honestly, especially in the family dinner scene, even something as simple as ‘pass the salt’.

Also, her Russian accent in the Budapest flashback! It was quiet but definitely there, and it showed that her American one was something she had to train herself back into once she defected, which I appreciated.

“I stashed that like five years ago” Is this a canon hint that Nat hoards her food? Maybe?! I’ll take what I can get to satisfy my headcanons thanks.

Natasha and Yelena’s fight sequence in the apartment is the best fight scene in the movie. No arguments.

So much of my inner monolgue while watching was just ‘imsogayimsogayimsogay”. That much leather and that many piercings??! The BRAIDS?? This movie is for the wlws.

Mason you absolute icon I love how much you care about Natasha I love that you’re sleeping everywhere because same. (You deserved better than to be a Taskmaster misdirect). Please turn up in more MCU properties as Yelena’s contact or something.

“But you’re not a mouse, Melina. You were just born in a cage, but that’s not your fault.” THIS LINE!!!

AND THIS ONE. “You took my childhood, you took my choices and tried to break me. But you’re never gonna do that to anybody ever again.” The emphasis on choice vs children, how it’s always been about bodily autonomy instead of the romanticised horror of sterilisation that Whedon went with. 

“I never let myself be alone long enough to think about it.” I GASPED.

HONOURABLE MENTION: “You didn’t work in the shadows, you hid in the dark,” (or something). There’s something really satisfying about that line. 

Everything about this film is so inherently female, I love it when things don’t reek of testosterone.

I’ve heard some critics say this movie felt really ‘isolated’ and ‘disconnected’ from the rest of the MCU because of the time jump and how many new characters there were and I have to hard disagree there. The appearance of Secretary Ross, name-dropping Tony Stark, and the continued references to the Avengers were not only realistic but also really cemented this oneshot in-universe for me. 

*cue me flapping my hands and opening another draft because every separate point is eliciting another two paragraphs of analysis that I absolutely cannot include on this post or it will never end*. Man I love this movie. See the read-more because this is getting longgg.

Similarly, how it actually carries through on a lot of previous set up, mostly from Avengers 1, like with ‘Dreykov’s daughter’ and “thank you for your co-operation”. I got very nervous when they announced they were going to tackle Budapest because a) I didn’t think anything they came up with would ever live up to the hype people gave that line so it would only end in disappointment and b) I’ve never particularly cared, to be honest. (it was a throwaway line in Avengers 1 that was repeated for nostalgia in Endgame in a context that now makes no sense, forgive me for being indifferent) but I actually loved how it tied everything together.

The way it reclaims her from every male creator that’s handled her (fuck the Russos and M&M) while simultaneously keeping the best of what they managed to foster (again, Avengers 1 is a heavy influence, and rightly so, but it gives a fat middle finger to AOU, also rightly so).

How competent Nat was shown to be without being unbeatable. She fully got her ass handed to her a couple of times, and yes, it’s very unrealistic that she was able to go through two car accidents, fall off that bridge, out of that window and then out of the sky without being seriously injured, but we finally got to see the physical manifestations of some of that pain! She was holding her ribs when she got out of the water, the bruises on her back, the dislocated shoulder, and the blood splatters were actual splatters when she broke her nose rather than delicate dabs.

This might be an unpopular one, because I know this was what a lot of people were expecting more of, but I was glad Natasha’s youth in the Red Room was confined to the opening credits. The aftermath of that training and Natasha as a product of it has always been more fascinating to me than the actual event.

As an older sister myself, the dynamic between Natasha and Yelena really struck home for me. Yelena’s pride in Nat and need for approval and validation from Natasha in conflict with realising Nat’s flaws, wrestling with her disappointment, seeing how human Nat is, were perfectly portrayed by Florence Pugh. I could completely relate to Nat, who, despite trying to convince herself otherwise, couldn’t fight her fierce protective instinct and specific brand of unconditional love that only an older sister will ever feel. 

A diverse set of Widows!

I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of comics references in this movie. The frame where she jumped through the fire from the Waid/Samnee run, the pheromonal lock.

Now I have my problems with Scarlett Johansson, but I came out of this movie with a lot of respect and a little bit of pride in her. It’s clear that she put her everything into this movie, both as an actor and executive producer. She obviously cares immensely about Nat and how she’s portrayed, and it’s clear from interviews that the things she loves and finds fascinating about Nat are the same as the fans. (I also feel a little bit sorry for the way she’s getting brushed over in the coverage in favour of a new and shiny Florence Pugh, so this is me expressing some ScarJo-as-Natasha appreciation).

A big question I had going in was, ‘Natasha’s always reflecting the people around her, but what’s she like when she’s alone, and has only her own mind for company?’ and this movie really answered that for me. Seeing her out of her suit and wearing clothes that were for her, not for a cover or a mission, seeing her drink beer and eat ice cream and let her hair dry while watching a Bond film she’s obviously seen many times before, it was all perfect. The scenes in the caravan were a huge step for humanising women in action movies. 

I’ll probably be adding to this post a lot because this movie will not leave my mind and new things are occurring to me at the most random points. 

See my ‘Things I...didn’t like as much about Black Widow’ post here.

#black widow #black widow spoilers #natasha romanoff #marvel #yelena belova #mcu #scarlett johansson #antonia dreykov #melina vostokoff #alexei shostakov #my post #black widow analysis

[genderqueerpositivity]

I finished Irreversible Damage this weekend.

(All the TWs below)

I took notes in a tumblr post draft as I went, and it's a long mess that I'm not sure anyone wants to read. It might clean it up and post it as a review if anyone is interested.

Overall, it's a terrible book. There were a few passages that hit like a gut punch, but for the most part it wasn't a difficult read...because Shrier is so disconnected from the reality of what it is to be a transmasculine person. That book is not representative of the transmasculine experience, I'm not represented in the pages of that book.

It's about us, without us. (And no, I don't--and won't--count Buck Angel as representation of the average transmasculine experience.) Apart from a few cherry picked words from trans Youtubers and a handful of detransitioners, this book is led by the stories of anti-trans parents--this book isn't about the transmasculine experience, it's about the transphobic parent experience.

It's anti-transmasculine propaganda...and worse, the further into the book you read, the more obvious it is that the book is intended to function as a guide for parents to practice DIY conversion therapy. This is literally a guidebook on how to abuse your trans child.

Isolate them (literally move across the country if needed, states without laws that protect trans people are strongly recommended), separate them from their trans friends or other affirming people in their lives, prevent them from having access to phones or internet, never ever use their correct name or pronouns, force them to do manual labor or physical activity if possible, take away or destroy their gender affirming clothing or binders, and make the home "private" again (in other words, never let anyone find out that your child is trans or what you are doing to your child because of their transness).

If there is anyone who believes that transmasculine people don't experience a very distinct and specific form of transphobia, I would ask them to read this book.

The kind of transphobia that trans men and transmasc people face intersects heavily with ableism and sexism. Transmasculine people are heavily infantilized; it's shocking (but not surprising) how...paternalistic an attitude this book takes towards both teenage girls and women and transmasculine people, including trans people who are legally adults. It is clear that Shrier does not think highly of teenage girls and young women...they are easily misled and easily confused, lonely and desperate and self-hating, incapable of separating emotion from reality, easily influenced by social media and peers.

Shrier encourages parents to exert as much control over the lives of their legally adult trans children as possible, and to use any potential leverage available to manipulate trans adults into stopping their transition. It's obvious that Shrier doesn't view trans adults as actual adults at all, but as childish individuals who are mentally/emotionally/neurologically underdeveloped. Any neurodivergence, mental illness, or history of trauma adds tax, and is proof that a person isn't mentally competent to transition.

It is also obvious that the potential future fertility of any transmasculine person is valued more greatly than our personhood, bodily autonomy, or mental health. At no point is it ever stated that child-bearing or motherhood are optional. The possible loss of fertility is the "irreversible damage"...and whether that potential fertility is even wanted by the trans person in question isn't relevant.

There are some other WTF moments in this book too. Shrier doesn't believe that spiritual abuse is real, rather it is nonsense invented by "gender ideologues" in order to accuse Good Christian parents of abuse. Shrier comes across as anti-therapy and anti-mental health medication; she downplays depression as "the blues" and anxiety as "nerves", and goes on to suggest that those who take antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications are looking for an easy way out and simply trying to medicate away normal human emotions. She openly opposes conversion therapy bans that prevent the practice of conversion therapy against trans people, and she opposes school anti-bullying programs that teach LGBT+ acceptance.

This book is also anti-queer, anti-pansexual, anti-asexual, and to a point anti-bisexual. Shrier is clearly obsessed with the amount of sex that trans people (including minors, there are some really gross statements in this book) are or aren't having; because so many trans people identify as asexual, at one point she refers to the trans community as a "cult of asexuality". Bisexuality is considered a phase of normal teenage exploration on the way to developing an either straight or lesbian/gay identity. And if you think that lesbian/gay teens and young adults get a break in this book, you're wrong: Shrier discourages parents from affirming their gay and lesbian teens and she is clearly against GSA's in schools.

I could keep going for a long time, but I won't.

Anyway, after reading that fucking disaster, I've just started Detransition, Baby and I'm waiting and hoping for it to get good; the first ~60 pages are kind of slow-moving, more words than plot. I am interested to see where it goes though!

#transphobia tw #conversion therapy tw #abuse tw #child abuse tw #transphobic abuse tw #misgendering tw #sexism tw #ableism tw #irreversible damage #abigail shrier #op #pregnancy tw #not a positivity post #not positive

[veliseraptor]

there is my black widow movie

wow been a while since marvel movie write up, let’s see if I even remember how to do this. just got back from the theater with @ameliarating and @portraitoftheoddity and honestly you guys, non-spoilery first emotional reaction: I loved it. I had a fantastic time watching it. this is the first Marvel movie in a long time that I’ve watched and gone “oh wow I could watch that again.” I might actually watch it again. the only barrier is ticket prices.

anyway! yeah. so. positive feelings. proudly: there’s my black widow movie

to get more specific (with multiple spoilers below):

this is all going to be very stream of consciousness so I apologize in advance

to paraphrase an internet meme: WOMEN

seriously though this was a movie that was about women, centered women, the most prominent relationships were between women and I loved it, okay, I loved it so much.

the opening sequence with tomboy!Natasha who was clearly already semi-feral and had probably killed a man before.

child!Natasha screaming at everyone that she was going to kill all of them if they touched Yelena.

“you were even younger.” well fuck!!!

in general lots of angsty backstory juice in here. like, it doesn’t get lingered on because that’s not the point but there’s some...Yelena’s description of the forced hysterectomies, for example, is kind of a joke but it’s also extremely visceral and puts the emphasis on the violation of bodily autonomy, which, if you’re going to take that from comics that’s what you should be getting from it.

in general: dear Black Widow movie team I see you guys pulling from the Richard K. Morgan run, I see you, right down to the ‘violence inhibiting pheromones/breaking your nose to circumvent them’ thing.

me, in the theater when Natasha started provoking Dreykov into hitting her: HEY HEY I SEE WHAT YOU’RE DOING

I would like to watch those opening credits again more closely because damn was there a lot going on and I’m pretty sure it gave implied confirmation (combined with the amount of punishment Nat took in this movie and got up again) that Natasha is more than baseline human to one degree or another, and I’m just pleased with that because it’s been my headcanon for ages.

YELENA BELOVA MY BELOVED oh my god Florence Pugh was a delight and so funny and just! her relationship with Natasha! the fact that that relationship was so central, was the driving force of the movie, and their dynamic was...

look, I have a lot of feelings about the way that Natasha acts younger around Yelena in the way that you get younger around your family, the way she’s less serious, she smiles more, it’s just...it’s good. it’s getting more of the Natasha we’ve seen glimpses of that isn’t just the badass spy/assassin.

anyway it’s just aslkdjsldkfj many many feelings about Yelena and Yelena as the one left behind

Natasha denying that they were real sisters? ouch. big woof! I want more of Yelena’s head in general because there’s a lot going on there, so hope some fic digs into that. or maybe I’m going to have to? I have so many things to write already without picking up a fic with a very small audience sldkjfslkdjfhhhh

the fight choreography was a delight to watch. and also delightfully brutal. especially loved the Yelena v. Natasha fight but there were lots of good ones.

Taskmaster reveal was a good choice and I’m so glad that Natasha got her out. flashbacks of Ava Starr a little bit but like

Natasha as a savior of women and girls in particular and how that’s been a thread in recent comic runs for her? yes, thank you, into that

shallow but: this movie had some prime Natasha hair. excellent, the one she has at the end of the movie pre-hair dye is maybe my favorite ever

teared up when Natasha and Yelena hugged. congratulations Marvel, punched me right in the sister feelings

straight up cried during the post credits scene alkjsdf I’ve spent the years since Endgame in a vague state of denial about Natasha being dead so that was a rough wake up call

there was a tiny tiny part of me that was like what if they bring her back though and...yeah, they weren’t gonna do that but. I was still thinking it for a minute there.

but damn what a hook for (probably???) the Hawkeye series and does this mean that there’s going to be more Yelena, cause if so then good, and also yes thank you for the grief/mourning aftermath of Natasha’s death being a thing maybe because I was not vibing with how that was (not) happening

anyway. loved it, the accents were puzzling and I’m sure the spoken Russian was appalling but like. it gave me a lot. I am so pleased

(also just. reminding me how much I fucking love Natasha sldkjsdlkfjsdlfkj my girl!!!!)

other shit will probably come up but I’ll call it for now and leave this vague screaming emotional post here. could I write a coherent review? probably if I tried but that sounds like a lot of work

#there is my black widow movie #black widow spoilers #natasha romanova is better than you

[hellerism]

(Regarding your jewelry post earlier) in secret good supernatural demon dean gets an ear piercing and dean gets it redone after Michael lets it close

im sorry this took so long to answer but i was inspired and ended up writing 1.2k about deans bodily autonomy as related to his earrings

---

Jimmy Novak had once described angel possession as like being chained to a comet.

With all due respect to Jimmy, Dean disagreed.

Maybe it had been like that with Castiel, who—incredible as he was—had only been a regular angel at that point. But being possessed by Michael, first and most powerful of the archangels, the leader of the Host of Heaven, was like being at the center of a perpetual supernova. Dean was exhausted from the strain, weary down to his bones. Deeper than that, even; his very atoms burned with exhaustion.

Worse than that, though, was the way he’d been trapped in his own body. Michael had kept Dean as a prisoner in his own mind, filling out his limbs with a strange presence, dressing him in clothes he hated, torturing with Dean’s hands. Killing with Dean’s hands. He’d thrashed against Michael in his head, clawed at his prison until his metaphorical fingers bled, but he was powerless against him. All he could do was watch.

Now, even with Michael gone, Dean still felt the ghost of his grace running through him, angry and burning and utterly wrong, nothing like the gentle warmth of Cas’ grace he felt whenever Cas healed him.

He stood at the mirror in the bunker’s bathroom. He’d taken a long shower and changed into familiar clothes, but the feeling of Michael still lingered. He examined his appearance in the mirror, ran his finger over the tiny scars on his earlobes where Michael had let his earring holes close. Earrings were, apparently, not Michael’s style; one of the first things he’d done after he escaped that church with Dean’s body was yank them out and throw them away.

It was a tiny thing, really, in the scheme of things, but right now, looking at his bare ears, something in his chest curled inward.

See, he’d wanted earrings growing up, wanted to look like the pretty boys in the magazines scattered around motel lobbies. But John, of course, would allow no such thing. As he got older, Dean reasoned to himself that earrings would just get in the way of hunting. Some monster would rip them out during a fight, and then he’d have to deal with injured ears on top of everything else. So he told himself.

When he’d been turned into a demon, on the other hand, free of those pesky human inhibitions, he’d walked into the nearest tattoo parlor the day after Crowley whisked him away from the bunker and left an hour later with his ears pierced. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple black stud in either ear.

Months later, when he was back in the bunker and once again human, after he’d shaved his face and trimmed his hair and started to feel like himself again, he couldn’t bring himself to take out the earrings. When was the last time he’d done something like this for himself? He liked how he looked with them in. They looked good. He looked good. Throwing them away would be a waste of a perfectly good pair of earrings, anyway. Honestly, it just made sense to keep them in.

The next morning, he’d walked into the kitchen to find Sam and Cas at the table eating breakfast. Well, Sam was eating, at least; Cas was absorbed in some book Dean didn’t recognize. They both looked up as he walked in.

“Morning. I made pancakes,” Sam said, gesturing to the platter in the middle of the table. “You feeling okay?”

“Never better,” Dean said. He almost hoped that Sam wouldn’t mention the earrings and just let him get his pancakes in peace, but then Sam’s eyes flicked to his ears.

“Those are new. You keeping them?” There was no judgment in his voice, just genuine curiosity.

Still, Dean had flooded with self-consciousness, struggling not to think of John. His hand went to his ear, his finger playing with the backing. “I mean. I don’t hate ‘em. Just seemed easier to leave ‘em in. For now.”

“They look good,” Sam assured him, and gave him a little smile, then returned to his pancakes.

Dean grabbed a plate and slid into the seat next to Cas at the table, piling pancakes onto it. As he reached for the syrup, he caught Cas staring at him.

“What?” Dean asked after a few seconds, his face growing hot, but neither of them looked away.

“Piercings suit you,” Cas had said finally, and then returned to his book.

Dean had flushed red to the tips of his ears. He finally turned away to see Sam smirking, and he had to resist the urge to tell him to shut up, grateful at least that neither of them were making a big deal of it.

So it became a normal thing, Dean wearing earrings. He bought a few different pairs of studs over the years—a gold set, a silver one, ones inlaid with tiny blue gems, but mostly he stuck to the black ones.

He loved how he looked in them. He loved the compliments he got, from both men and women. And every day that he wore them, the voice of his father in his head, the source of his shame, grew smaller and quieter.

But Michael hadn’t cared about that. Michael cared about how useful he could be as his vessel, as his sword. The Michael Sword.

Dean couldn’t stand his reflection anymore. He stormed out of the bathroom and down the hall to his room and rummaged around until he found his first aid kit, a brand-new sewing needle, and a lighter. He yanked open his nightstand drawer and paused as he looked over his few pairs of earrings. His favorites—the first pair of black studs—were long gone, thanks to Michael. So instead, he settled on a pair of small gold hoops that Claire had given him last Christmas.

She’d tried to pass it off like it was no big deal, tossing him the wrapped package and muttering something about how he couldn’t keep wearing those lame studs forever, but Dean invented that move. He knew what it had meant to her to give him something, and he treasured the earrings for that. Still, he hadn’t worn them yet. Hoops were less practical than studs; with his luck, they were bound to snag on something during a hunt, and he didn’t want to risk losing them.

But caution be damned. He was going to do this for himself. The monsters would simply have to work around him this time.

Back in the bathroom, he flicked open his lighter and held the needle over the flame to sterilize it, then wiped it clean with rubbing alcohol from the first aid kit. It occurred vaguely to him that he might want to go to a professional for this, like the first time, but he couldn’t wait that long. Besides, he could do this. He’d seen movies.

He braced his ear with an unused bar of soap, took a deep breath, and stuck the needle through his earlobe, wincing slightly at the pinch. He removed it and quickly stuck in one gold hoop, then repeated the process on the other side.

It was done in less than two minutes. Dean studied his reflection in the mirror and poked gently at the hoops, and for the first time since Michael had inexplicably left him, a real smile spread over his face.

It felt right. He looked right. He looked like Dean again. He could still feel the remnants of Michael’s grace in his veins, but it was Dean’s body. He was taking it back again, starting with a pair of gold hoop earrings.

#my first spn fic since the renaissance and im proud of it tbh #supernatural #spn #dean winchester #ive never pierced my own ears i got that from wikihow i hope its accurate #ask

[sammysdewysensitiveeyes]

I’m just gonna start tagging all my salt posts “marauders salt” because I have yet more to say, and I want to give people the option of skipping past my incessant whining.  (What’s that?  Stop whining?  No, friend, this is my place to vent.  But I really don’t want to drag other people down, so scroll by if you want something more positive.) 

But anyway, I was just thinking about the discussion that sebastianshaw, esteicy-blog, and others were having about Duggan’s use of “feminism” in Marauders, and how it is a very shallow, surface level feminism that seems to be “men bad, women good, especially beautiful, wealthy white women.”  And especially how Duggan prioritizes the female characters’ emotions, and tends to push aside and ignore the male characters’ emotions, especially anything other than anger.  That was most evident in the latest story, where Duggan invented abuse as part of the backstory of two female characters (Lourdes and Wilhelmina) where abuse hadn’t existed before, and completely ignored two male characters (Christian Frost and Shinobi Shaw) who actually had abuse as part of their canon backstories.  Even though Shinobi Shaw was canonically abused by the same man that abused Lourdes (in Duggan’s retcon), and whom Emma has been repeatedly beating down, Shinobi doesn’t get to be part of Emma’s revenge or Sebastian’s comeuppance in any meaningful way.  Because the real theme of the story is not “dealing with abuse,” it’s “women helping women against male abuse,” (done specifically in a way to prop Emma up as a character.)  

This also got me thinking again about Pyro and the Yellowjacket story, a story that I was okay with back when it happened, but keep getting angry about whenever I revisit it.

So, Pyro gets invaded by Yellowjacket for an unknown period of time (probably at least a few days).  Given how Duggan has been writing the characters, I’m willing to bet that this story would have been taken a lot more seriously if Yellowjacket had been inside Emma or Kate or Storm or Callisto, or one of the characters that Duggan actually cares about.  Then we might have actually looked at Yellowjacket’s actions as a violation of bodily autonomy and privacy, and pointed out how creepy it was that Pyro had one adult and 4 voyeuristic children watching a live-feed through his eyes while he was presumably doing things like showering, changing clothes, going to the bathroom, etc.  (I just KNOW that if it was Emma being spied on during her private moments, there would be a lot of focus on pervs wanting to look at her body, and the violation she feels because of it.)  Not to mention the sheer helplessness of having something inside his body that could kill him at any moment (and Yellowjacket proves that he is, indeed, willing to immediately kill Pyro if he is found out.)

But the situation isn’t taken seriously at all, instead we get jokes about Emma’s wardrobe, and Pyro watching Rick and Morty, and that ridiculous fantasy sequence.  Not only that, but Pyro’s very justifiable anger is treated as a joke.  He asks twice to kill Yellowjacket, and is brushed off by Magneto both times.  Obviously he can’t violate the laws of Krakoa, but Pyro doesn’t get to do anything at all to Yellowjacket, just has to let him go.  Pyro gets to psychically burn Verendi for a few seconds, then Emma drops the link, and again, quickly brushes him off. If anything, she seems somewhat disdainful towards him.  It seems like we are supposed to view Pyro’s desire to hurt Verendi as comically over the top.  There’s only one line that shows any real vulnerability from Pyro, the “You lot have humiliated me in front of my friends....I don’t really have a lot of friends....” and after that we go immediately into him laughing maniacally as he burns Verendi.

And there’s no follow-up after that, at no point does anyone on the crew check in with Pyro to see if he’s okay after that arguably traumatic experience.  Not even a pat on the shoulder and a “Hey man, that was messed up,” from Iceman or Bishop, who seem to be friendly with Pyro.  Or anyone telling Pyro, “Don’t feel bad about it, it wasn’t your fault, could have happened to any of us,” etc.  The only emotion Pyro is allowed to express is anger, and his desire for revenge is treated as a joke.

Compare this to Emma and Kate’s revenge on Shaw.  Emma and Kate also have very justifiable anger over what Sebastian did, and their vengeance is well-deserved.  But while Pyro’s anger is mostly dismissed and treated as “funny,” Emma and Kate’s anger is treated as something to be admired.  They are girlboss queens stepping all over a pathetic foe, and we are expected to cheer for them while they spend an entire issue beating Shaw, torturing him, poisoning him and ripping his eye out.  That’s not seen as “too much,” while Pyro’s desire for revenge apparently is.  Pyro is expected to just step back and accept the single bone that Emma has thrown him, while Emma gets to spend the next several issues continuing to twist the knife into Sebastian, and we’re apparently supposed to be on her side.    

And you could potentially argue that Emma has much great justification for revenge, since Sebastian has done horrible things to her in the past.  Yeah, that’s true, but Emma has already had significant revenge on Sebastian in the past, even killing him at one point.  You could also argue that Pyro needs to learn a lesson about violence and restraint, given his past, and indeed that seems to be the direction Duggan is going with him.  But if that’s the case, someone like Emma or Bishop could have turned the Yellowjacket incident into a teachable moment for Pyro, and actually talked with him about how it will serve their plans better to leave Yellowjacket/Verendi alive.  If nothing else, I would have liked to see a page or two of Emma bringing Pyro out of the dream and actually talking with him about what’s going on.  Maybe then we could have gotten some kind of serious discussion or reaction from Pyro.  But no, he just gets dismissed or ignored by pretty much everyone on the beach, aside from his one moment that Emma allows him.

So basically, Pyro has something bad happen to him, it’s treated like a joke, and his desire to hurt the people responsible is portrayed as over the top and disproportionate.  Kate has something bad happen to her (admittedly something much worse, since there was a chance she’d be perma-dead), and it’s a several issue tragedy, and she and Emma get to act as avenging Furies beating down the evil man responsible.  Their long, drawn-out revenge is righteous and good, Pyro gets a few seconds of psychic pain, and that is treated as too much as Emma quickly cuts him off. 

TL,DR - Duggan really tends to completely dismiss the feelings of male characters in this book, especially Iceman, Bishop, Pyro, Christian and Shinobi, in some kind poorly executed attempt at “Girl power” that isn’t actually very feminist at all.

Deliberately not tagging this as “Marauders,” I don’t want to interfere with the enjoyment of other people who are liking the book.

#marauders salt #pyro #st john allerdyce

[a-duck-with-a-book]

REVIEW // Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

★★★★★

Before I get into my rant, here is my very quick review where I parrot what everyone else has been saying:

Beautifully written, Bone Gap is a refreshingly different YA novel with a hypnotizing narrative and fascinating characters. I loved seeing their stories revealed amidst the magical realism of the story. Bone Gap itself was a fantastic setting that functioned almost as an extra character.

TL;DR -> read this book!

I've talked before about how much I enjoy many of the retellings in YA in a previous review, and this book once again shows why this trend deserves more academic attention. For anyone who isn't aware (which I certainly wasn't until I got about 60% of the way through the book... oops), Bone Gap draws from the story of Hades and Persephone. The myth of how the goddess of spring came to be in the Underworld has been a popular story for millennia, and in the past few decades it has (rightfully) faced some not-so-favorable scrutiny.

// image: official cover art Melissa Castrillon //

Largely, complaints stem from the kidnapping and r*pe of Persephone in most classical versions of the tale:

"He was riding on a chariot drawn by immortal horses. The son of Kronos. The one known by many names. / He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, / And drove away as she wept. She cried with a piercing voice, / calling upon her father [Zeus], the son of Kronos, the highest and the best."

Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Gregory Nagy

As I mentioned in my Circe review, the "retelling" of older myths and folk tales is by no means new-rather, humans have been adapting the stories each generation was raised with to suit their new needs and values. Stories meant to teach young girls how to prepare to become dutiful and doting wives in arranged marriages to ugly, older, and perhaps violent husbands (think the traditional versions of Beauty and the Beast) become tales of headstrong women who want more for themselves and *gasp* know how to read! See this description of Belle from the 18th century version by Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beautmont, then compare it with the "misfit", not-like-other girls bookworm of the Disney movies:

"When they came to their country house, the merchant and his three sons applied themselves to husbandry and tillage; and Beauty rose at four in the morning, and made haste to have the house clean, and dinner ready for the family. In the beginning she found it very difficult, for she had not been used to work as a servant, but in less than two months she grew stronger and healthier than ever. After she had done her work, she read, played on the harpsichord, or else sung whilst she spun.

Beauty and the Beast, by Marie Leprince de Beautmont

The Hades and Persephone myth has similarly gone through the 21st century transformation, but, interestingly, by way of two very different paths-"Good Hades" and "Bad Hades". "Good Hades" makes the god of the Underworld a sort of feminist character who, in a way, rescues Persephone from the misogynist world of Olympus and mankind, allowing her to blossom (as it were) in his realm. He is respectful of her body and frequently asks for her consent. Hyperaware of the history of the pair's relationship, authors will often beat the reader over the head with the "see! he's asking for consent!" element, which I'm not one to complain about. Rachel Alexander uses the "Good Hades" approach in her Hades and Persephone series (which I highly recommend). While the "Good Hades" stories make him into a misunderstood, kind, and respectful love interest who we are meant to want to end up with Persephone, the "Bad Hades" ones take his persona in an entirely different direction. "Bad Hades" is conniving, evil, and almost always described in ways that disgust the reader: corpse-like, cold, oily. He is a villain who Persephone must escape from, a foe with no regard for her bodily autonomy and twisted views of love and authority. This is the path that Bone Gap takes:

“Don’t worry. I won’t touch you until you want me to,” he said, as if he should be congratulated for such scruples."

The trait that both of these trends share is that Persephone becomes an independent, active participant rather than a pawn in the game played by Zeus, Demeter, and Hades. She often takes charge of her fate, sometimes outmanoeuvring Hades or even developing powers that outmatch those of the other gods. While Ruby's Bone Gap and Alexander's Hades & Persephone series take opposite approaches in their interpretation of Hades, both give Persephone similar authority and liberation. Ruby's Persephone (SPOILER) maims her own face in order to force Hades to let her and Finn go (END SPOILER) while Alexander's is revealed to be (SPOILER) the "true" ruler of the Underworld and has powers over Tartarus that even Hades is intimidated by. (END SPOILER) The myth of Hades and Persephone can be a controversial one to approach-some readers won't even pick up a story if it is such a retelling simply out of principle. I've seen quite a few posts floating around which condemn every Hades and Persephone retelling, especially those with the "Good Hades" storyline, and I stringently disagree. Many of the myths, fairy tales, and oral histories we rewrite have problematic pasts that reflect the standards of the cultures they were told within. Modern retellings can further mold those same frameworks into new tales that instead show us our current standards. Bone Gap is such a beautiful and well-written rendition of the modern retellings trend, and I will just keep hoping that academic circles will start paying attention to the old stories finding their way into YA books.

#bookblr #bookish #bookworm #goodreads #book review #review #a duck with a book #ya #ya fantasy #young adult #fantasy #hades #persephone #laura ruby #rachel alexander #hades and persephone #bone gap #receiver of many #destroyer of light #star #melissa castrillon #cover artist