#nobody talked like just free black people back in early 1900s

[ace-with--a-mace]

i definitely think quarantine stunted everyone under the age of like 25's growth and its detrimental to society today

#like obviously society was 'on hold' for however long people decided they wanted to quarantine for if they even did #and people were doing and saying the craziest shit wayyy before the pandemic #but i notice a lot in the younger kids in my neighborhood thay are starting middle school or are starting school in general #that they act 3 years younger and arent fully adjusted (?) to where their brains need to be for their ages #even with teens in my classes! obviously we're teens and we act immature but this like a whole other level #you have people in class stuck in 6th-7th grade and dont know what a rhyming word is #and not even like your usual handful of ppl who cheated their way thru school but like a good 5 ppl in class know the diff between #metaphors nd similes. we're reading classic literature and stories set 100 years ago when blk people were making their own communites #and you have people loudly whine that theyre pissed at the book and nobody talked like Shakespeare did in the 1500s or #nobody talked like just free black people back in early 1900s #like duh quarantine was necessary and all but i think a side effect of it was general immaturity in society #l speaks #ranting in the tags because i can #OH. i was gna mention ab online discourse too like obvi people over 30 use the internet #but you only really ever see dumb fights with insane outcomes come from people who just hit drinking age #idk i just feel like i noticed something that j think other ppl may have noticed but.

[its-bianca]

Things I Don’t Get About American Culture

These are some things I gleaned from living there, hear on media, heard from friend, visiting there, etc. NOTHING in this post is meant to bash or hurt anyone. These are just harmless observations from an outsider who hasn’t lived there very long. In fact, it’d be great to have a discussion about some things I state here and true/falses or reasonings behind it. I think some of these may not be exclusive to Americans, so feel free to correct me.

The wave. That arm raise thing you guys do in a stadium that produces a human ripple effect? White American thing. I know what it is, I just don’t understand it. We Indonesians prefer a synchronized stompy thing with loud chants. I witnessed this firsthand in Seaworld (which, I don’t support anymore btw), and in NHD, where I kid you not, a stadium full of middle and high school students are doing the wave, like 10 times in a row. When the wave hit the Southeast Asian column, we were like a break of waves. It just stopped for a second then continued on over to the column next to us, until we realized what was happening, recalled the scene in movies, then followed suit in the next wave.

Unpopular opinion(?): Why do people love Beyoncé? I don’t know if I’m just an uncultured Gen Z kid who doesn’t understand the prodigy and legend that is Beyoncé, but I’ve talked to my friends in Indonesia and they also don’t quite understand the hype. I loved her too...but then I realized that my love for Beyoncé wasn’t actually because I adore her singing voice (which is amazing I have to admit), or her songs, works, and everything else she did, but mostly because American culture and media LOVES her. I have seemed to join the bandwagon without realizing. Her songs are not totally my style, and others would probably agree, so why is she getting all this hype? Fans...don’t come after me. I just don’t get it, so please enlighten this poor soul.

Chipotle. I tried it. I don’t get it. It’s just some salad in a burrito thing. I was so excited to try Chipotle for the first time this year, but was gravely disappointed. I thought they at least had quesadillas. Maybe I’ll give it a second chance when I move. 

White cafeteria food. And I don’t mean just in school cafeterias, I mean that distinct smell you get when you walk into some American buffet dinner. It’s the smell of salad bars, paninis, macaroni and cheese, and CLAM CHOWDER. THE CLAM CHOWDER. That’s what gives it the distinct smell. The US Capitol tourist attraction has a cafeteria that has THAT smell, Soup Plantation has THAT smell, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, have THAT smell. It’s not a bad one...it’s just that you get sick of it after a long while (5 days were my limit), no matter if the food is actually edible or not. Thankfully, Los Angeles has a lot of other diverse food options...

Americans’ preoccupation with political parties. I heard one time from an interview that someone will NOT marry or date anyone from an opposing party because they believed their viewpoints and beliefs would be too different. Okay, I get that in this period in time, Republicans have a bad reputation, for pretty good reasons. But if I’m not wrong, weren’t they the “good” guys back in the early 1900s? They supported black people who were being oppressed by the democrats, enforcing laws, policies, and rights. I just don’t understand the overwhelming division and hatred in the American public. It seems all wack. There ARE “good” republicans out there, just like how there are “bad” democrats. I know a few “good” republicans in fact, and their beliefs aren’t that extreme.

Imaginary friends in childhood. Okay, this one isn’t an American thing I don’t get. I had a/an imaginary friend(s) as I grew up, but the majority of my Indonesian friends tell me that imaginary friends are a white thing. I protested, saying that I’m not white. They then say that because I lived in the US in my childhood, some of the “white culture” rubbed off on me. Is this true? My sister and one friend’s brother had an imaginary friend, and they never lived in the US. I need more evidence.

SHOES IN THE HOUSE. You’ve probably heard this before from other Asians. But WHY DO WHITE PEOPLE WEAR SHOES IN THE HOUSE!?! I’m genuinely confused. Not saying I’ve never done this, but I only when I’m in a rush and need to grab something from my room. Whenever I read a book about an angry teen stomping into her room, shoes echoing in the hall, then climbing into bed WITH SHOES STILL ON, I cringe. As a child reading middle-grade books, I never questioned it, just cringed. Now, seeing that more and more people are speaking up about this atrocity happening to floors, carpets, and beds, I feel the need to raise my voice too. 

Butt hygiene. Why don’t Americans wash their bums with water after taking a dump? The occasional tissue wipe is fine, but long term? Nononono. Asians have a bum hose spray thing right next to the toilet for these purposes. Or, if you live in Japan (or can just afford a fancy Japanese toilet), you have a toilet that does it for you! My uncle got a DISEASE when he didn’t wash his bum after going to the toilet. Also, I feel like you’d be more likely to get a UTI. A little TMI, but in our apartment in LA, we don’t have a bum hose installed, as many American homes don’t. If I feel lazy, I’d wet the tissue and use that. If not, I’d usually shimmy up to sit on the sink and wash (and regularly disinfect the sink of course). This is pretty much the only hygiene concern I have. Every other American hygiene practice? Well done, pretty cleanly compared to Indonesia (but nobody can compete with Japan).

I’ll probably add on to this in the future in a separate post (or fix some mistakes) once I properly move in to the US next week and go to school.

#asian #hygiene #asian culture #white culture #americans #white #indonesia #og posts

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

I Wonder...

The release of Wonder Woman in UK cinemas is upon us. Tomorrow, if I so chose, I could go out and see it. Obviously, I’m actually planning on waiting a bit so I can go see it when there are fewer yammering bell-ends in the cinema (I will never understand people who talk during a movie they have paid to see, but there is never any fucking shortage of them during the first week that a film is in cinemas). However, the imminent release seems like a good opportunity for me to talk about my feelings towards the film.

Basically, I feel cautiously optimistic. DC has a patchy track-record with female superheroes in live action. On the one hand, Harley Quinn stole the show in Suicide Squad by being outright hilarious and getting shit done wth a baseball bat. On the other hand, watching the Supergirl TV show is like gargling syphalitic spunk while a very bored intern half-heartedly nails your feet to the floor with rusty corkscrews. On the one hand, Lois Lane’s part in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman shows that DC’s scribes can write emotionally complex, assertive women characters. On the other hand, prior, pre-DCEU attempts to do that have been a real mixed bag that proves they sometimes forget how.

However, the trailers I’ve seen for the film fill me with hope rather than concern. The focus seems to be on demonstrating that they’ve done a good job accurately translating a much-loved character onto the silver screen and giving them an epic plot to explore. They’re not really making a big thing of the fact that this is the first female-led superhero movie of the modern cinematic age. You see, when a film promotes itself using its cultural significance and place in the meta-narrative rather than its actual content, it usually means its not very good. The fact that Wonder Woman doesn’t feel the need to do this tells me that DC and Warner Bros are confident they’ve made a good film. From what they’ve shown me of it, I’m inclined to believe them, too. Pay attention movie promoters: a total lack of obfuscating bullshit in your trailers gives us confidence in the film you’re trying to sell.

The action looks good, the plot looks epic, the characters look well-portrayed and the humorous elements actually look funny in a low-key, not-the-main-point-but-a-nice-addition way.

I’m also feeling pretty upbeat about the way the film seems to be handling the feminism intrinsic to Wonder Woman. She’s a feminist icon (and rightly so) who has been associated with women’s rights movements pretty much since her incepton. As such, the filmmakers can’t just avoid the issue and hope nobody notices. They have to draw the feminism out of the subtext and actually make it an explicit part of the way their lead character reacts to the world around her. The problem is that it’s really hard to do feminism in movies and TV. The mediums demand simple, grandiose, good-versus-evil narratives, but patriarchal oppression (and the various movements designed to dismantle it) are actually incredibly complicated with lots of grey areas and unresolved issues that nobody can agree on. Modern feminism isn’t an ultimatum so much as it is a discussion: everyone agrees equality is a good thing, but what does equality look like? Is it eqality of opportunity or mathematically equal division of power and resources? Is it erosion of differences between men and women or a celebration of those differences that places value on femininity? Does equality of representation mean more, different content should be created to cater to women or that all content should feature some representation? Confronted with these questions, most films and TVs are reduce to waving their hands anemically in the air and feebly going “woo? girl power, I guess?” Luckily Wonder Woman neatly sidesteps all that by taking place in the early 1900s. Oh you crafy bastards, DC! Y’see, women didn’t even have the vote in many countries back then, and the whole world was generally a lot more explicitly sexist. By setting the film then, they get to show Wonder Woman taking a stand for women’s rights in very easy-to-digest, black-and-white terms without having to disappear up their own naval trying to figure out whether Dianna Prince would be more of a women’s lib feminist or more of a radical feminist. Sure, it’s a bit of a sneaky way to dodge real-world issues, but I’d honestly rather just have a good film than one that gets lost trying to make a good point.

I also like how Wonder Woman’s costume is so close to the one in the comics, fan-servicey strapless top/torso armour and all. It’s one of those things that could have been redesigned to death all too easily in a bid to update the character for modern sensibilities. Luckily, it seems the good folks at DC heard my complaints about how Superman’s costume was totally the wrong shade of blue in Man of Steel and we’re not going down that dumb and winding road again.

It’s also nice to see more obscure characters show up in minor roles to flesh out the cast (literally in the case of Etta Candy) and give long-time fans a loregasm.

Come to think of it, basically everything I’ve seen about this film has given me cause to think it’ll be good. Nothing related to it has been slightest bit annoying. Well, aside from that stupid promotion the Alamo cinema did for it, but I can’t blame the film for that. If you missed this partiular nugget of idiocy, by the way, the Alamo decided it was going to a ladies-only showing of Wonder Woman and ban menfolk from entering that screening. The thing that made Wonder Woman special is that she left  the women-only island of Themyscira to interact with “The World of Men” because, basically, she saw value in the idea of the genders living together and understanding one another. Promoting Wonder Woman by doing gender-segreated screenings is missing the point on an olympian level. It’s like promoting Fight Club by giving away free soap, except dumber, because at least Fight Club didn’t have an explicitly anti-soap message.

But that it’s it, really. I’m sure the usual suspects on the film-critic circuit will be fucking insufferable as soon as it’s released (whether it’s good or bad, eight billion rectums with haircuts will line up to say “I told you so”). For now that, it looks like a throroughly decent film with only the dipshits at the Alamo slightly pissing in the feel-good oitment, and I’ll have forgotten them by this time next week. Which is ironic, when you think about the name of the cinema.

#Secret Diary of a Fat Admirer #Wonder Woman #wonder woman movie #film