#that’s just. being normal and acknowledging women are oppressed lol

[tedhugheshater]

normal people support female separatism <3

#saw the news with my dad and he often criticised feminism etc yk he’s an average middle aged man #and there was a case of this raped french athlete by her coach as a teen #and he started ranting about how that’s why he didn’t allow me into certain sports clubs as a kid because there were male coaches #and my mom agreed and then they continued saying how women specially girls need separated spaces #because ‘those monsters are out there’ etc #based family #and honestly idk much people who would disagree irl like yeah i mean sure most don’t support #full on female separatism but basically everyone does to some extent #that’s just. being normal and acknowledging women are oppressed lol #female separatism #mine

[pillarsalt]

hi Im the same ex transmasc anon who sent you that aask about rhe tumblr ban thing, I did a lot of reading without forcing myself away this time. (I used to look at radblr sometimes bc I got curious, but when it started making too much sense i would make myself stop reading and tell myself I was being manipulated and try to forget about it..looking back that probably wasnt normal haha,)

I have mixed feelings tho. I don’t regret looking closer, the amount of sexism in the trans community was horrible. I think even radfems don’t understand how bad it was because it was all subtle styff. But seeing it constantly irl and online was terrible for me as a female. It gave me so much internalized misogyny, it made me hate myself and I felt worthless and stupid! and whiny! and annoying! all the time!! unless I was able to be perceived as a man. I felt like I had to be a man to have any respect in the community. I remember being so amazed to see abortion be covered by trans people I followed in even a reblog because it was the first time I saw people in the community talk about female issues at all. Even then it was covered with disclaimers and terfs DNI banners. male,opinions were always prioritized.

I thought this was dysphoria and a sign I was really a man. then I started reading radfem things and its like that feeling instantly lifted. I felt respected, listened to, even though I wasn’t speaking. It was also like all this stuff I’d internalized from being female, all the trauma around sex based oppression, was actually being addressed. in trans circles you get called a terf for acknowledging females face any kind of oppression (they acknowledge sex when it’s to talk about how hard male loneliness is on young trans women, and how the incel to trans woman pipeline happens, though…)

but the reason I have mixed feelings is bc I now feel….dumb? And afraid. And angry. I spend well over a decade being part of this community, half my friends are in the community, I’ve been trans since I was 9. My typings not the best… dyslexia sucks lol. But I like to think I’m smart. Now I don’t know,

And it makes me think totally different of these people I saw as progressive cis male allies, who were so loud about trans rights and hating JKR and terfs. Now they just feel like the same flavor of anti-feminist man I hate.

And the community is so huge and it’s so widely accepted and I don’t know how to deal!

But I am happy to be a woman now. In a healthy way I haven’t been for a long time. thats all that matters.

I'm sorry for everything you were put through. Many girls and women have been sucked into this thinking it will provide a solution for their distress at the social ramifications of the body they're born in, only for more people, namely men, to take advantage of their distress and gain power over them. As you mentioned, even "cis" men get in on the action when they justify intimidating and threatening women with violence in response to perceived transphobia. It's a terrible situation to be in. Made worse when you can't openly talk about with people you're close to for fear of alienating them.

I think you should give yourself more credit. You ARE smart. You questioned what you were told was never allowed to be questioned and realized you were being misled. And what you said about trying to make yourself forget the realizations you've had, that is normal. It's a difficult and scary thing to hold opinions that conflict with those of the majority of your peers. I think it's like the climax of cognitive dissonance -- when what you know is true clashes so hard against what you want to believe, you find it impossible to justify anymore, so you just resort to pretending you never learned the information in the first place. Been there.

I'm just being a stereotype now, but there's a classic Dworkin quote for this:

"Many women, I think, resist feminism because it is an agony to be fully conscious of the brutal misogyny which permeates culture, society, and all personal relationships."

Anyway my point is, don't beat yourself up. I'm really happy to read that you're accepting your womanhood, it's a hard journey but it's worth it to have a good relationship with yourself. And in my experience (at the sage and wisened age of 25) that it gets easier as you get older. You work through mistakes, and that prepares you to handle the next mistake better. You're right, your health and happiness is all that matters, keep striving for that and it will steer you right.

I wanted to give you some reading recommendations, you mentioned you have dyslexia but I believe these two are available in audiobook form if that's up your alley:

Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine

Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez

There are tons more great books on feminism but these two are my go-tos for hard facts on gender, socialization, and the systematic discrimination against women worldwide through biases that are built into society.

Well uh; TLDR thanks for gracing my inbox, anon :) Hope you keep well.

#ask

[vexingwoman]

Uh not actually here to hate but to say thanks???? Ive been thinking alot on my self expression and trying to figure out how to word it, and seeing some of your comments with other people really helped to put in perspective what I was trying to come to terms with. Ive always struggled with my gender but acknowledge fully that I'm biologically female. (Stay with me here till the end please i know lol) I genuinely dont care what pronouns I'm called either and none have ever felt right if I'm honest and nothing I've read or tried has been adding up for me over the years to help me feel any better.

Kinda realizing over the past year or so that I just have this deep ingrained idea from being surrounded constantly my whole life in a woman hating environment that I just have a *really* heavily masked hatred for what general society treats women as and was trying to remove myself from it hoping itd somehow save me from the terrible shit we all go through daily. And it just made me feel even more alienated doing that to myself. Its been a long time of coming around to this and I know how it sounds but I dont wanna consider any of my time wasted. I dont remember what it was but something you said to someone in a long ass comment fight clicked for me and rn I'm sleep deprived and wont even remember what it was in the morning either but I feel like some kind of weight has been eased off me. Im doing my best to unlearn the sexist misogynistic bs ive had shoved down my throat my whole life that made me think being a woman was something to be shameful of and better off without.

Its been hard trying to look into this radfem community and find someone who didn't immediately just insult and exclude ppl that werent already on the ball agreeing. Basically I appreciate your ranting with strangers. Amd indulging some of their curiousity as clearly as you can+defining everything you say constantly so I dont get lost in a whirlwind of hard to understand metaphors. Idk you get it. Something clicked and i dont feel ashamed for the time gone bc I know it was heavily influenced by the oppression of all things normal-human-womanly around me. I hate that we're all so tied into these stereotypes. Its painfully hard to unlearn. Thanks for the help. Have a fat block of text as thanks cause I'm not sure how to sound as genuine as I feel rn. Have a nice day and an even better tomorrow. Im gonna get some sleep now💀(stayed up WAY too late painting lol) bye!

This is so wonderful to hear. I know how dreadful it is doing serious introspection and making yourself aware of how deeply and unconsciously your internalized sexism runs. I’ve been there, and I know it’s even more difficult to deconstruct the subtle sexist attitudes which have been ingrained into to us since birth. Often it seems as hopeless as chasing smoke, because some of our internalized sexism is so deep that it’s invisible, and worse, inarticulable.

Some women will never think on these subjects beyond their surface level—will never dissect their preferences, will never concede that their choices are influenced by sex-based socialization, will never seriously reflect on why they are so desperate to identify out of womanhood. And in a strange way, I sympathize with these women, because I understand that it’s easier to shut your eyes and convince yourself that you were born in the wrong body than it is to open your eyes and acknowledge how much sexism has seeped into and corrupted our own minds.

Basically, I’m proud of you for putting yourself through the pain of deconstructing your own internalized sexism. You are better for even attempting it, and I hope you continue to do so.

P.S. I know exactly which long-ass comment fight you’re referring to, because I only put myself through that once. At least someone benefited from the literal month I spent arguing with that stranger. They blocked me, so unfortunately I can’t even go back and analyze the conversation if I ever wanted to. I would love to know what you took away from it, if you ever do remember.

#terfblr #radical feminism #terfsafe #radblr #gender critical #radical feminist safe #misogny #sexism #trans logic #gender abolition #answered asks

[tamelee]

I think a lot of sakura hate is undeserved. Like ik she's said and done some things that were out of pocket, but then again so did almost everyone else and no one else gets scrutinized as much as her. I don't even like her and her fans are incredibly annoying, but I feel this much is true. I think she'd still be one of the most hated characters in all of anime if her undeserved hate went away, so it doesn't really make much of a difference. I feel like her hate is kinda like sasuke's, sometimes it feels like he gets hated on just for being sasuke bc ik some things he's done would've been swept under the rug if another, more popular character did it (eg when he killed some samurai) for sakura, there are lots of incel fanart memes dudebros made to make fun of her, so it seems like they hate her for just being a woman who rejected a loser man and likes a better man. It's no wonder her fans are so annoying, that's what happens when your fave character gets undeserved constant hate. My fave is sasuke and sometimes even I wanna do some petty annoying shit just to piss his haters off too lol. Also since she's a woman, there's definitely some misogyny at play when her character is being analyzed by men. Or even women with internalized misogyny. It's stupid to deny that, misogyny is the most normalized oppression everywhere. So many ppl don't even realize they're being misogynistic, that's how normal it is. Sure it's not always the case but ignoring it is just being dumb. Her fans using the misogyny card to actual genuine criticism is definitely stupid though. Like it's possible to not like a woman and not be misogynistic ofc. Also when they use that when sns fans ship sasuke with naruto instead of sakura, that's even dumber 😂 how is not shipping a woman with a man and instead shipping him with another man misogynistic in any way lol. But yeah, I'm definitely not on her fans side, or even a fan of her myself, but I can still acknowledge this

+ 2 Asks - long post:

When talking about critiquing characters and analyzing stories, it doesn't really matter who's doing the talking – whether they're fans, critics, or just people who love or don't love a particular show or character. We can't always figure out why (especially anonymous) people feel the way they do and how do we even discern the motivation or background of those who do so? —whether they're misogynistic, incels, dudebros, fans, or critics of whatever other stories, among other factors. In fact, in this case it’s pretty irrelevant? Or only relevant here because you brought it up.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t take away the fact that a significant portion of the 'Naruto' audience finds Sakura's character unlikable. She consistently is found at the center of conversations about the most disliked Anime characters. This is ultimately a reflection of storytelling, rather than solely an audience reaction. And that leads to a broader discussion about Kishimoto’s writing where many blame his lack of skill in writing when it comes to the portrayal of female characters. (Opinions may vary, so does mine.) Dismissing criticism by categorizing critics as incels or misogynists is oversimplifying it tbh because of course they harbor specific biases against a character like Sakura which in itself isn’t fair and would definitely make it ‘undeserved’. (I really wouldn’t use that term for a fictional character unless we talk about the story itself tbh.) You yourself say “not always the case...” So that doesn't mean Kishimoto's portrayal of Sakura or any other character, and the genuine criticism she receives for universally disliked traits, is any less valid. Many perceive her as selfish, and Kishimoto himself has used that specific term (and even worse) to describe her. So, you can’t deny that this foundation of her character exists. Her decisions and behavior make sense even if people preferred to see it differently. 

Though, when analyzing, it is important to keep the Shinobi world in mind, and only our own as reference. And that’s exactly why the hatred Sasuke gets is not the same.... :

The amount of hate/criticism has nothing to do with a comparison though. Sakura's actions are often deliberately misunderstood, twisted to fit certain narratives that are in her favor and even exaggerated to counteract the hate like the first ask said. On the other hand, Sasuke is generally misunderstood and is hated for it. Often not getting even a tiny bit of compassion because some people struggle to see beyond his exterior and just ride the Naruto-verse’s moral/value waves from the narrative. Where the entire point was that those ideals needed change. 

SAVE HIM!? Why is it always so actively ignored that Sakura tried to kill Sasuke twice but him defending himself or fighting back is ‘so incredibly evil’? This ‘resolve’ of hers becomes even more significant to Kishimoto’s message when we consider that she intentionally represents the same ideals that led to the genocide and with that- agreed to eliminate him without attempting to understand him even once. Repeating history in the meantime where, again, that change is necessary. And you start with trying to understand the other, something Naruto had to learn too and actively had to find that answer by himself. Never once did she actually listen to Sasuke when he tried to open up and instead twisted the few words he got out to make it about herself. Not only disregarding his (and Naruto’s) trauma but shitting on it, thinking he, of ALL people, would feel happy with her abandoning her family and friends for him and comparing her feeling lonely without Sasuke to his entire clan being murdered what forced him to grow up alone. I mean, hello? Kishimoto was saying something very loudly there and it’s nothing positive about Sakura and that certainly has nothing to do with a lack of writing skills, the opposite actually. Even if she was briefly a teammate, she rightfully became irrelevant to him, and her decision to get rid of the (in her and the world's eyes) “criminal” was entirely for her own sake because she couldn't bear to see her crush behave like one and deal with her irrelevance.  

She rejected everything Sasuke wanted, needed, and desired, including his central 'why' in the story. She reduced him to a moody handsome boiii with no goals of his own, one she neither could nor wanted to understand. She tried to insert herself into his goals without him giving her any reason to, and when unsuccessful, she wanted to discard them altogether thinking he was ‘too far gone’. Like Sasuke as a person as a whole was her ‘burden’ to bear simply because she wanted to be somewhat relevant. Even Kakashi said it :/ although he thought she did it all out of the kindness of her heart. (Ffs, Kakashi I like you, but no.) Now, please consider EVERYTHING and then think again why Sakura thought of Sasuke as a burden or why she felt burdened by him while lying about her trust in him to Sai? 👀

The importance of Sasuke having a goal is immense because he grapples with survivor's guilt. A goal provides a reason to keep going, a way to carry the pain and blame he places on himself. It allows him to be strategic and have a plan, which is the only source of hope that things may eventually improve. He rejected what Naruto stood for because he found it distracting and hard to trust at that point. OF COURSE he fought so fucking hard against it. No matter his feelings for Naruto, relying solely on effort like Naruto wasn't something he could do. Especially considering how his beloved brother had betrayed him in the worst possible way.

Now, here's a question for you: why would Sakura need to receive compassion or 'deserve' it when, as a character, she rarely demonstrated it herself, especially when it comes to the person she claims to like so much? And if anyone thinks that was out of love in any way, which it wasn't, then what does it all mean for Naruto????

If you genuinely believe there was any point in the story Sakura tried to save Sasuke for Sasuke’s sake then I hope you’re able to read the story again and question this very rigorously for yourself. Not just her actions, but what Kishimoto tried to actually show/tell and use them to measure how it stands against the bigger Themes also.  

Lastly: the whole point of needing to kill Naruto was BECAUSE he cared for him lol, read Sasuke's monologue again if it helps. That his bond with Naruto had too much of an impact on Sasuke. His one and only, his most important person/friend, only bond left that kept him from truly being alone, Naruto’s life in itself too much of a threat to his heart even when separated, blabla- should I go on? 🤔      

#asktamelee #naruto talk #sasuke talk #dunno how else to tag this #I rarely want to talk about sasuke on my blog but #this became very pro sasuke and anti sakura jsyk #really had to vent a little xD

[nightskywonderer]

Superman & Wonder Woman: Being True

There seems to be this notion that when Superman and Wonder Woman are together, they see themselves as above humans or they lose their humanity is utter bullshit. There has been zero evidence of this in canon comics. Using goofy alternate shit like Injustice doesn’t make the argument either.

It was also said that they bring out uncomfortableness. Why? Because it’s acknowledged that they are different and not conforming to what’s acceptable as the norm? Well so be it. In the real world, no one lives for someone else’s comfort. You can miss me with that selfish entitled bullshit.

There are claims Superman and Wonder Woman needing to be anchored to human love interests to be relatable or lower themselves to be “normal”. No, no, hell, no. Lois Lane and Steve Trevor are not why Clark and Diana are the heroes they are. Clark and Diana were heroes, had their purpose way before them. Lois and Steve aren’t and should never be their motivation to do what’s right and what they were meant to do and be. Clark and Diana are far more “human” than any normal human any damn way. They selflessly make shit ton of sacrifices without any hesitation. What they do as individuals or a couple is on extraordinary levels and there’s nothing wrong with that. Flying across the skies like free birds is such a beautiful thing. Trying to cage these birds, ground and limit them is unnecessary and a shame.

As best friends with unresolved, underlying feelings or the Power Couple, it has always been established, their duty as heroes come first. They have been each other’s moral compasses, written to have complexed conversations about their purposes, the view of the world, open to each other about their deepest feelings etc.

To reiterate this again, Kal-El is from a different planet entirely. He is an alien. He may look human in appearance but he is not. He was raised to pretend to be normal but he is not normal. Yes, the Kents raised him with good morals and values but that sure as hell does not mean, he had to grow up to reject his heritage, and keep pretending to fit in and the mental gymnastics. Pre-Crisis and New52 Superman understood this assignment. Post crisis Superman, not so much. Superman was once the Champion of the Oppressed. He was to aspire and lead to better. To make a difference in a world of corruption. What happened to that? Now he is just stagnant, stuck in a comfort zone of pretending, romanticizing lies and being unethical at times. Protector of an outdated view and status quo. As well the obnoxious problematic depiction from the beginning of Rebirth of perfect privileged spoon-fed all American family that basically screwed up DC continuity even more so to force it as the “truth” or “real”. Superman/Kal-El/Clark Kent should be one in the same. Not choosing one over the other as one is fake/disguise. Ironically, in the animated adaption of “Throne of Atlantis”, Clark himself said to not be “one of them, but to blend in.” This was before the asspulled contrived asinine 180 of his character for Death of Superman adaption.

Diana of Themyscira is a Princess from a secluded island that was separated from man’s world for its chaotic bullshit. Yet, she wanted to explore the world, learn and teach, bring peace and people together. She celebrates life and love, stands for truth with one self and others. Motivate and fight for equality and the protection of women and children. Majority of Diana’s iterations have been consistent with this attitude. Except rebirth, who had to be thrown into a mental institution and losing herself because spiteful writer’s bias. You really expect me to believe homegirl was living a lie and in some kind of illusion within her mind or whatever for 10 years? LOL no. Although, she is a DemiGoddess, Diana is still very much an earth woman. And I mean that literally if we go with the clay origin.

What I loved about new52 Superman was his motivation to be Superman was the PEOPLE

Diana is the Goddess of Truth after all. To hide who you are, what you love and enjoy is a disservice to oneself.

The two together bring something unique and challenging. They have their similarities and differences that compliment.

But they don’t change who they are for one or the other. They learn from each other, accept even more of each other, and grow together as a couple.

In this day and age, we celebrate what makes us stand out and be our unique selves. Superman and Wonder Woman are suppose to THE epitome of this!

#superman #wonder woman #superman and wonder woman #wonder woman and superman #dc comics #superwonder #supermanwonderwoman #power couple #clark kent #diana prince

[butchmartyr]

Literally there are so many times trans men have been told to shut up because trans women have it worse.

Granted, a good chunk of those times it’s said by self hating trans men.

Look I’m not saying trans women should never get to speak, but like. Talking about the lateral aggression in queer communities that transmasculine people face is often called transmisogyny, when most of us don’t even mention trans women. You get me?

Idk maybe this makes no sense

second ask and full thoughts under readmore.

tl;dr: that sucks dude and it shouldnt happen but can we please talk about transmisogyny without making transfems do this song and dance about acknowledging trans men also feel transphobia every time we speak up? because ive said what im saying here several times and its starting to get really tiring that tme ppl arent listening lol. transmisogyny doesnt imply that other people have it better or anything, its just recognizing the unique and shitty ways that trans women get fucked over, you shouldnt see this in opposition to you! maybe read this post also

Idk how to explain where I’m coming from; sorry for two asks.

Again, I want trans women to be able to talk about their own problems. My problem is people — mainly people who aren’t trans women! — derailing any conversation about trans men’s oppression and making it about trans women.

For example, trying to change the discussion to be about what words people can use, claiming anyone who talks about trans men’s problems is a transmisogynist, etc.

And look, I think trans men can be transmisogynists, and should be called out. But I feel like… ugh idk how to word it. Like any trans guy who tries having a conversation about our own problems is going to be called a transmisogynist, even if the conversation has basically nothing to do with trans women.

for me, i can only speak from experience and ive seen very little of that happening, but ill trust you when you say that and say, yknow, that sucks, its bad and shouldnt happen? like. if this is about the post i think its about, my comment about that never happening was hyperbole to make a brief point before going back on topic, which is why i also said that if it does happen, then that sucks, because it does/would? like. im not your enemy, im not trying to silence trans men. ive lived my literal entire life constantly being socially silenced and ostracized, thats not what im doing. the focus on a throwaway comment is kind of irritating.

trans men should be able to talk about their unique issues and stigmas and thats a good thing that they should do, no transfem i know thinks otherwise. what ill also say is that what you're describing, talking about "lateral oppression in queer communities" often comes from a transmisogynistic place; my posts about transmisogyny should be about transmisogyny and, yknow, what im talking about, but theres at least a few trans dudes on each of those posts going on about how simply trying to talk with the language of transmisogyny is oppressing them. this is (trans)misogyny. its normal (even if it shouldnt be) for men to assume theyre being oppressed when they see women empowered, and thats whats happening here. like, literally just remove the word "trans" and youll see what i mean, this is an issue of gender and misogyny. you can talk about men's issues without pulling women down and acting like feminism is trying to push you down, yknow? i shouldnt only hear about this oppression and transphobia you face when i or other trans women are talking about transmisogyny, and yet it always seems to crop up in that way or else decry transmisogyny as a concept in other ways. like, the derailing thing you're describing literally has happened on all of my bigger posts about transmisogyny, and other big ones by other ppl as well! its extremely plain to see.

trans men should talk about the transphobia they face and they should be able to do this without getting blasted with oppression olympics but you should also recognize a lot of this transandrophobia rhetoric comes from a transmisogynistic place, especially because its often used and brought up in opposition to a trans woman talking about the extremely common intracommunity issue of tme people leveraging transmisogyny against trans women by leaning back on bioessentialism, clinging to cagab-based identities, and views of us being inherently "male" on some level or another. we are not your enemies, and you are not ontologically incapable of violence

#if this isnt clear you're welcome to dm me #im not a dick or mad at you #just frustrated at the larger tumblr ecosystem and how nobody cares lol #asks #anonymous #transmisogyny

[autisticandroids]

hi i'm trying to keep up on spn fandom drama without actually watching the 6 seasons I don't care enough to watch so could you tell me what on earth "why lamp" means? tysm

ok so this is a long one. 

so the way i see it there are three major pieces of evidence, in the last two seasons, that dean is going to reciprocate. 

i’m not talking about like, evidence that i would use as a textual analyst if the author was dead: if i use everything that looks to ME like dean being queer then i would have mountains. i’m talking three pieces of evidence which i am absolutely convinced were intentional on the part of the people who write the show, meaning that they suggest deancas might actually go canon officially. 

that’s also why i’m only counting the last two seasons; cas made his deal with the empty in early season fourteen and it was definitely intended to come off as romantic. why do i know this? because it has the same goddamn terms and even wording as angel’s curse from buffy: angel experiences “one moment of true happiness” and he loses his soul, cas experiences “one moment where he is truly happy” and he dies. on buffy, angel’s true happiness is..... well.......... sex with buffy. so when i heard the deal i was like hm. at the time i thought they were just fanservice/easter egging me, but now i know better: they intended that. so i think mr. dabb has been planning deancas endgame since at least them lol. i’m pretty sure they knew the show was ending at that point so they could do it.

anyway the first piece of evidence is dean’s michael fantasy in 14x10. this is imo the second strongest. in it, he’s a bartender, accompanied only by a woman he can never sleep with because she has a boyfriend. they flirt endlessly, and she comments “how come you only want what you can’t have” which is a mirror for what cas says in his confession: “the one thing i want, it’s something i know i can’t have.” she also later comments “besides, you don’t want me, you just like to flirt. i’m psychic, i know.” suggesting that dean is faking his interest in her, which could be normal but reads to me as intentionally suggestive that he’s either uninterested in women or simply hung up on someone else. like “dean pretends to be interested in women to show off his flirting game and flex his dudeness muscles” is a subtext that’s present in a huge amount of the show; like, there are a few female love interests he has chemistry with, but mostly his sexcapades read like i-need-to-prove-i’m-manly bedframe notching or showing off for his buddies. this is even explicit-ish a couple of times, like i said in this post here. but they’ve never explicitly pointed it out in words i don’t think. and like. “pretending heterosexuality” is pretty queer lmao (even if dean is bi he’s still faking ultrastraightness to prove he’s manly/straight). 

also, it’s weird as hell that they picked pamela barnes for that scene. she never had a particularly close connection with the boys or anything, why not someone else? but she’s 1) psychic, so she can say that line about dean not wanting her, and 2) much more importantly, she’s intimately associated with cas. like, she first appears in lazarus rising, and she’s the one who gets her eyes burned out looking at cas’ true face. like that’s her biggest deal: Woman Who Got Her Eyes Burned Out To Show How Dangerous Cas Is. and then she died off pretty quickly because she was a woman on spn s4.

also, in the scene, she wears an angel wing necklace and a shirt that says “to hell and back” (pointed out to me in the same post). plus the guy who wrote the episode also wrote lily sunder has some regrets which i hope we can all agree is an ICONIC destiel episode.

the second piece of evidence is the purgatory confession in 15x09. this is the strongest evidence. i don’t really have much to say about it because it’s so blatant? like, when i first saw it, i was literally like “this is intentional deancas fanservice jesus christ.” like i lean towards generally interpreting deancas stuff as an accident on the part of straight writers and the purgatory thing did not feel accidental to me. and then cas cuts dean off at the end of the confession, before dean can say some final thing, and dean looks devastated, and then we never find out what the final thing was. like, it’s pretty blatant.

the third piece of evidence is the lamp dance. this is the weakest of the three. basically, dean has a dream sequence in 15x10 where he dances romantically with a lamp. given that one of the things that’s going on in 15x10 is that dean is realizing that he could be allowed to have domestic bliss, the apple pie life, and still be a hunter. the dance with the lamp does kind of come off like it’s implying that there is a partner shaped hole in his life. he has no female love interest in s15 and he hasn’t for years. here is a really cool, if way too smart for spn, piece of meta about it, and here’s another which is less cool but acknowledges that spn is dumb and doesn’t think that hard and is therefore imo more correct. also, andrew dabb himself wrote the lamp dance episode, which makes it stronger evidence than it would be otherwise imo.

anyway when i was Feeling the Madness on saturday, i decided to make this joke post based on the format of that one alvin and the chipmunks meme, you know, “if women are oppressed then why ___” (i would not suggest looking at it on my actual blog because tragically that breaks the format, open it in dash). i was basically using the lamp dance as slightly-ridiculous synecdoche for all three of these pieces of evidence because it’s the weakest.

then later that day, because i treat my blog as a deeply self-referential internal monologue, i made this post documenting the madness i was experiencing, and i ended it with “then WHY LAMP” as a reference to my earlier post. that one got popular, and now “why lamp” is a common way to refer to the lamp dance meta.

#spn #asks #why lamp #Anonymous

[houroftheantichristwolf]

Lesbian Politicization

This was published 1990 in a book called Dykes-Loving-Dykes: Dyke Separatist Politics for Lesbians Only and illustrates exactly the long-standing issue with women appropriating lesbianism, using their political beliefs to try to define female homosexual existence in relation to opposing men. The agenda, of course, is to say fuck males and to fight the ever elusive and ever changing culture of patriarchy. 

That’s 100% relevant and helpful for actual homosexual females....not. 

I’ll make this short though, this is just to show how feminists been appropriating lesbians and applying their values to lesbian existence.

In the 1980’s, a decade of reactionary politics, femininity became an accepted value among many Lesbians. Even many politically radical Lesbians, who I would most expect to support Lesbian self-love and self-respect, who usually call male bullshit for what it is, began to openly admire feminine ways of dressing and acting. Femininity! A patriarchal hype if there ever was one.

Lesbians who didn’t look the way you personally think is more useful for your cause probably didn’t care to make a political statement out of their existence. The point of lesbians seeking lesbian communities is to find other lesbians - with the exception of those who WANTED to seek out political radical lesbian communities. That is not an inherent aspect of our existence, and to be honest, it’s not even a large part of it as women appropriating lesbians usually populated those communities. Here is a recap of the origins of radical “lesbian” separatism: *** [ In the late 70s a group of lesbians in Leeds, known as revolutionary feminists (RFs), made a controversial move that resonated loudly for me and many other women. They began calling for all feminists to embrace lesbianism. Appealing to their heterosexual sisters to get rid of men “from your beds and your heads”, they started a debate, which reached its height in 1981 with the publication of an infamous booklet, Love Your Enemy? The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism (LYE). In this, the RFs wrote that, “all feminists can and should be lesbians. Our definition of a political lesbian is a woman-identified woman who does not fuck men. It does not mean compulsory sexual activity with women. It’s no surprise that the booklet was so controversial. “We think serious feminists have no choice but to abandon heterosexuality,” it reads. “Only in the system of oppression that is male supremacy does the oppressor actually invade and colonise the interior of the body of the oppressed.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/30/women-gayrights “Political lesbianism originated in the late 1960s among second wave radical feminists as a way to fight sexism and compulsory heterosexuality. Sheila Jeffreys helped to develop the concept when she co-wrote “Love Your Enemy? The Debate Between Heterosexual Feminism and Political Lesbianism”[3] with the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group. They argued that women should abandon support of heterosexuality and stop sleeping with men, while encouraging women to rid men “from your beds and your heads.”[4] Heterosexual behavior is seen as the basic unit of the patriarchy’s political structure, lesbians who reject heterosexual behavior therefore disrupt the established political system.[5]Ti-Grace Atkinson, a radical feminist who helped to found the group The Feminists, is attributed with the phrase that embodies the movement: ‘Feminism is the theory; lesbianism is the practice.’[6]” ] ***

Lesbians’ acceptance of anything “feminine” is part of the weakening of Lesbian politics—a Lesbian parallel to the right-wing trend of het politics.

LOL good. Being a lesbian does not mean representing anything political. Also what the fuck? This is where queer activists got their penchant for calling lesbians Nazis lol. Where’s that meme that’s like, anyone I don’t like is a Nazi? lol great homophobia, Queen/dumbass.

Those Lesbians who act out the feminine model and claim it’s a contribution to Lesbian culture, a flowering forth of their “real selves,” are of course Fems

So feminine lesbians’ real selves aren’t acceptable within your framework because they trigger your contempt of gender presentation that you yourself do not have to take part of? But your “real self” - a non-lesbian pretending to be a lesbian - is commendable because you want other lesbians to act and look exactly how you do which supposedly is off-putting to patriarchy AKA you use our sexual orientation to say fuck you to men? I think not. 

The het media is full of stories about the het feminist who “realizes that she doesn’t have to give up being a woman to be a success in life,” who “regrets having tried to be like a man,” and is now “rediscovering the excitement of feminine seductiveness, the fun of dressing up in high heels, make-up and skirts, and her deep need for the joys of motherhood.”

“Realizes she doesn’t have to give up being a woman to be a success in life”; “and her deep need for the joys of motherhood.” So you understand femininity = heterosexuality. This is the 80s/90s, I wonder what her opinion is now that ‘femininity’ has changed: heterosexual women wear gym clothes, lift weights, have short hair, wear no make up or minimal make up etc., and men love it. And yet I see feminists also say that heterosexual women who are like this are still trying to please men and so are still feminine even though what they’re doing and how they’re looking is not “feminine” according to the original perception. So what’s the truth about ‘femininity?’ It’s equating it to anything that heterosexual men find appealing, which changes constantly. You really want lesbians to spend time to think about how to be as unappealing to males as possible when they’re not even relevant and so don’t dominate our every thought and action (unlike you maybe because you’re not homosexual and so have to try harder?)? Please, get real.

She’s a threat to the Big Lie of “feminine woman,” and so men and their women collaborators make up all kinds of ridiculous, hateful fictions to explain away her existence. The pressure is meant to humiliate and bully her into accepting femininity, and it must put her through soul-shaking self-doubt, even if she knows other Butches. 

While I do know this happens, the reason behind that is homophobia 100%, being “masculine” appearing is a red marker of homosexuality. The threat is the big lie of heterosexuality. “Feminine” lesbians were assaulted when with their partners or if found out that they are indeed homosexual, they were just less of an obvious target than “masculine” women. It’s not Oppression Olympics, this should be used to understand hate crimes against homosexual women.

Meanwhile, girls who accept femininity—the vast majority, unfortunately—are accepted as “real girls” and encouraged to take pride in their feminine ways. There are degrees of femininity, of course. Some Fem girls accept the complete emaciated drag queen sex-object ideal while others take on just enough feminine identity to still be accepted as real girls.

“Real girls.” I was definitely acknowledged as a “real girl” when I was still  more “unfeminine” in my appearance and not out than I am right now being out. What degree of ‘femininity’ am I considered to exhibit now according to feminist praxis, who knows. Either way, my relatives disagree that any amount of femininity would make me a ‘normal’ female. My mother was sad toward the end of her life because she felt conflicted that I wasn’t a ‘real’ female. You know what would’ve changed her perception? Being with a man and having kids.

It means spending time, energy and money on nail polish, perfume, hair-do’s, dresses, diets, body-shaping exercises, poses and games; fantasizing  yourself as the center of sexual attention, making everything into a sexual game, getting yourself further and further away from female reality, from real female Lesbian power. It means identifying more and more with het values and choosing to see yourself through men’s eyes.

I thought femininity was clothes, makeup and seeking to attract men. Then it’s wanting a family and diet and exercise, which aren’t exclusive to heterosexual men and women. But because heterosexual males find that appealing in their lives it’s considered feminine? So, again, “femininity” is anything heterosexual males find appealing in females. Got it. And that answers my question about what her thoughts probably are on contemporary “femininity.” 

Most importantly, choosing to be an obvious Lesbian is about living with integrity. A Butch’s choice to resist femininity is the choice of a female who’s being true to herself, choosing to be as alive to her female self as possible, regardless of the punishments inflicted on her as a result. I find in that resistance a key to Dyke power, Dyke beauty and Dyke love.

A lesbian being an actual lesbian - not pretending to be one or basing her existence on her capability to spite heterosexual males and females - and living her damn life is living in integrity period.  Associating a lesbian’s life with political intent and political values has no integrity, is manipulative and is suspect as hell.

#Catch me NOT getting pigeonholed into any fakebian separatist activism #I'll keep doing me...you do you...but when you try that political B.S. I will say something #Do not project onto us and use political ethics to do it stop using lesbians as your coping mechanisms

[fiercestpurpose]

I love seeing your input on JeanScott, so I have a question. Ignoring Hickman’s current run, if the comics picked up from everyone coming back together, do you think Jean and Scott would get back together? How? Why?

YES! GOD YES! I wanted them to sooooooo badly lol

Realistically, I think that post-Rosenberg, they should have taken some time before getting back together, and talked about things. See, Scott and Jean, even when they’re in love, aren’t the best at communicating (see: Silver Age X-Men, X-Factor when Scott just doesn’t tell Jean that he’s married, Scott’s reaction to Jean becoming Phoenix, etc.). What separates healthy long-term couple Scott/Jean from hopelessly in love but sort of doomed Scott/Jean is that they’ve learned that they need to communicate, and they do this both through their psychic rapport and by having actual, out-loud conversation.

And after Jean comes back to life and then Scott comes back to life, they have a lot to talk about, including but not limited to Scott cheating on Jean with Emma and Scott being possessed by the Phoenix Force and killing Charles.

So let’s say we have an Uncanny title as our flagship (Storm, Jubilee, Wolverine, Kwannon, Nightcrawler) and they’re working on solving the problems of mutants. All problems, all mutants. It sort of picks up where Rosenberg’s left off, this is a harsh world and harsh times, people are against mutants, hated and feared, etc.

And then we have the B-team, which is X-Factor - Scott, Jean, and Hank, and then we pick up some of the X-Force members, Bable, Rictor, and Sunspot. That’s a lot of good threads to pull on - Scott and Hank were at each other’s throats for a while there, Rictor’s back with X-Factor when he hasn’t really connected with them since he was a teenager, Berto really loved Cable and Bable is Cable but also killed him, and Bable is Scott and Jean’s unruly teenage son who they raised in the far future but then abandoned (again). And, of course, Scott and Jean still have to talk.

I imagine X-Factor as sort of a return to basics, the characters involved all using it as a way to learn/reconnect with why they’re part of the X-Men anyway. It’s a way for Scott (Mr. Mutant Revolutionary) to remember that he’s helping mutants, it’s a way for Roberto (Mr. AIM) to come back from the Avengers and just reconnect with the more personal parts of being a superhero, it’s a way for all of them to take a step back from the big noise and just help mutants. They work out of a basement under a mutant community center (probably in NYC). The jobs are things like tracking missing mutants, helping the Morlocks move house without getting attacked by the police, making contact with new mutants, stopping mutants from hurting other people but by addressing their concerns and not by handing them over to the legal authorities. It’s a very ground-level, anti-police, confronting-oppression-by-helping-the-individuals-affected-by-it approach (in contrast with the flagship, which is much more big picture). And I think a key part of that is having them not be in charge of their own missions – they’ve been disconnected from the broader mutant community for so long that they don’t really have the right to say “This is what this community needs.” So it’s also a way for them to let go of leadership responsibility – not that they aren’t all capable of it, but it’s important for them to have some time off, to let someone else guide them for a while.

I think this sort of mundane setting would be an excellent opportunity for Scott and Jean to get back into working as a team. It’s an escape from all the chaos of normal superheroics and a chance for them to do real, concrete good together. It would also give them plenty of downtime – say X-Factor is supposed to make contact with a runaway mutant, so Rictor and Bable go to handle that, and Scott and Jean man the office and have a chance to talk.

They have a lot to talk about, and I think you’d need to spread it out over several arcs. They can have one serious conversation every 4-5 issues. One arc involves a virus that is being used to make people commit crimes, and Jean and Scott disagree about whether the people who are possessed are in fact responsible for the crimes, and it turns out they’re really talking about the Phoenix and they should probably talk about their experiences with the Phoenix rather than projecting that onto a different scenario. At one point Bable goes way out of line and Scott and Jean have to acknowledge that they’re still his parents, and they really do need to step in and exert some influence over him. And they sort of reminisce about when life was simpler and they lived in a post-Apocalyptic future raising their son. I think you leave the conversation about Emma for last, and the important thing is to build up their relationship in a natural way over the course of the series. (In this ideal world, perfectly good series don’t get canceled or rebooted every year just because Marvel wants a temporary sales bump.)

So that’s the how. As for why… I just think they make sense together. I think that a couple that you can only break up by having one of them die is a couple that, when they’re alive, would want to be together. They didn’t just “grow apart,” the way some people claim, they were forced into extremely OOC behaviour because Morrison thought “powerful women don’t make good wives.” From an out-of-universe point of view, they deserve a chance to rebuild an interesting, compelling relationship that was ended for no good reason. From an in-universe point of view, they’re in love, they’re good for each other, and they deserve to be happy.

Thank you for the question, I love talking about Jean and Scott and an alternate universe where I get to run the X-office. :)

#jeangr-y #asks #scott summers #jean grey #otp: a hurricane and its eye

[kezziablue]

Okay, so this is my first time ever using tumblr! Hopefully I do this right lol So basically, I wrote something for this fourth of July bc I’ve had a lot of conflicting thoughts about it lately, and it helps me a lot when I’m able to get some of my thoughts out of my head. I posted it on my other social medias (which yall are super welcome to check out and follow btw, i’m @kezziablue pretty much everywhere) and honestly very few people saw it from what i can tell. But my sister (god bless her lol) read it and urged me to post it here on my (up until this point) unused tumblr acct. So, here goes. Hopefully none of this goes against any guidelines? Like I said, V NEW HERE lol. Also forewarning, this is super long (I have a lot of thoughts lol). But it is here if you wanna read it and if you’re maybe thinking some of the same things:

I guess I should start by establishing the fact that i am American, since no one here would necessarily know that since I haven’t posted yet. Anyways! That being said, in the past, I’ve always loved July 4th, I think especially once we moved overseas because it was fun that it was a holiday that was distinctly American and reminded me of “home” (or at least one home of many). And to be honest, a lot of my love is probably for the BBQ and other delicious foods (potato salad 🤤) that I associate specifically with July 4th. And it’s in the middle of summer, my favorite season. There’s singing, gathering, and festivity. For me, it was the time of year that usually meant I got to see friends that I normally didn’t because we lived so far away. And fireworks are cool (at least they used to be, sound sensitivity is a B). What’s not to like? Or so I thought?

This year is different. I mean, that much is obvious. It’s different in almost every way imaginable. The amount of time between this month and the last, much less this July 4th and the last, seems unfathomable. So much has happened. So much has changed. So then, it seems reasonable to expect that this July 4th would be different as well. And it is.

Over the last couple of days, I’ve been asked what I’m gonna do for the 4th of July. Do I have any plans? And honestly, no, I don’t. The holiday hadn’t even crossed my mind. But with it being brought up, I started to think about it, and found that I was met with total disinterest in observing this holiday this year. It took me about 0.5 seconds to realize why: This year it just feels wrong. And celebration, honestly, is the farthest thing from my mind.

So I was left with the question: “do I celebrate the fourth of July this year?” And if not, what do I do instead? I pondered this, and didn’t come up with much. My brain is often so jumbled these days. So, in true millennial fashion, I did what I always do when I have questions like this that need answers, and I turned to Google, hoping maybe someone else was wondering the same questions I was.

I found several articles that were really helpful to me (and if i figure out how then I can link some if anyone wants to read). And I’m not gonna tell you what to think or feel or do. You decide what’s best and what’s true for you. And if this is something you care about at all, or if you’ve been wondering the same sorts of thoughts that I have, then I do encourage you to do your own research, figure out your own thoughts, decide what’s right for you. There really is a wealth of information out there that is so readily accessible.

So essentially, here’s what I’ve come up with, in deciding what’s right for me: this year I’ve decided that if I really care about America, the best thing I can do is educate myself about it. I can’t rely on school or media to tell me the truth. My twenty-four years on this earth and a lack of so much knowledge regarding both our history and the true current state of things have proven that much. I have to learn on my own. That’s my responsibility.

Even though I am black, I was raised in a white family, and by association and upbringing I also benefitted from white privilege in many ways (and this is something I’ll definitely discuss more as I continue learn and educate myself and process my own thoughts and experiences). I’ve spent almost half of my life living in countries other than the US, which also makes a difference. I’ve spent several years removed from many American realities and from feeling the immediate impact of prevailing issues that would have directly affected me otherwise.

I’ve come to recognize the weird duality of knowing that while I have experienced racism my whole life in many ways, I have also experienced white privilege in many ways. Because of my upbringing there were many times when, even when faced with racism directed towards me, I could turn away and say “it shouldn’t be this way”, thinking that my denial ensured that it wasn’t that way simply because I didn’t want it to be. It took a lot of learning (much of it still ongoing) to realize that the only way to truly eradicate racism is to face it head on.

So I can’t ignore the way things are right now (and have been for hundreds of years). And for me personally, I can’t use my breath to sing about American freedom while a man chokes out “I can’t breathe” as he is murdered by American police.

I can’t celebrate an ideal and ignore the directly opposing reality. Let freedom ring? When there are children being detained? Let us come together? When there are families being separated? “God bless America my home sweet home”? When we’re living on stolen lands? Sweet land of liberty? When the US has the highest rate of incarceration in the world? One nation, indivisible? When human rights and national safety become a political opinion instead of a given? Liberty and justice for all? When people of color are being disproportionately murdered by police who are not held accountable unless there is massive public outcry (sometimes not even then)? When we have laws that state that some people have the right to healthcare while others don’t simply based on who they love?

Maybe some of you have these freedoms and would like to celebrate that. But I don’t believe that any of us are free until all of us are free. So I’m not going to celebrate freedom today, because we don’t have it yet.

This is what I have decided is right for me. This isn’t me saying that you’re wrong if you choose to celebrate July 4th today. But I do ask that you be informed when you do so. Celebrate the freedoms that some of us do have, but don’t be satisfied, thinking that because some are free all are free. Maybe take a little time today to learn about things like:

-our country’s significant racist history

-the history of the peoples from whom this land was stolen

-the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls

-systemic and institutional racism

-police brutality

-state-sanctioned violence against people of color

-trans black women being killed

-the current normalizing of mass death by virus

-massive income inequality

-immigration detention facilities

-the prison industrial complex

-the school to prison pipeline

...and that’s just me naming a few of the things I can think of immediately. There is literally so, so much injustice in this country. So much oppression.

I can still absolutely acknowledge that we are a free nation in a lot ways that many other nations don’t experience. But the honest truth is that we’re a nation fighting for freedom yet built on racism and oppression. The freedoms we do have are guaranteed to some, and conditional to so many others. And so there is still so, so much wrong in this country that prevents us from fully experiencing “liberty and justice for all”. This isn’t me saying “wow. America is the worst”. This isn’t me ignoring the liberties that many of us do have. This is me acknowledging that in a number of ways it is (or is intended to be) good. But it’s not good enough. And it never will be, until we’re all free to fully access and enjoy our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

#blm #blacklivesmatter #blm movement #black lives have always mattered #blacklivesalwaysmatter #black lives fucking matter #4th of july #thoughts #july4th #july 4 2020 #independenceday #america #american #black lives matter movement #noneofusarefreeuntilallofusarefree #freedom

[bichosis]

how did that benign post about not making jokes about straight women being abused turn into the abuse olympics? idg why acknowledging the oppression straight women face (dating men doesn't absolve them from the sexism they face y'all) has to devolve into a competition. you weren't downplaying or disregarding the abuse other people face in your post. ugh. i'm too tired and too gay for this lmao. hang in there.

right? its completely ridiculous lol. people keep acting like im some sort of hetero rights activist just bc i dont think abuse jokes are funny.

no one on this site can look at any situation ever with any sort of nuance. its literally like "since im oppressed by straight women, this means i can be a misogynistic abuse apologist abt it" instead of just... being normal.

[kuningannasansa]

A musketeers rewatch (that nobody asked for) 1x07

Here we go, my least favorite episode of the whole show excluding season three which I didn’t watch! If you have even a passing fondness for Ninon, I suggest you look away :)

We start with a royal procession through the crowd and there are quite a lot of waving people there. If they can fill the streets with extras for scenes like that, why can those same extras not be used for the court scenes?

Priest whose name I have forgotten is being robbed. The musketeers rush in to help. 

Meanwhile, a crazy girl tries to get close to the queen and ends up being ran over by her carriage. If this is meant to be some Emily Davison analogy, it sucks!

The dead lunatic’s name is Therese and she wanted to give the Queen a note. Constance takes it and says “Fleur, what does this mean?” Am I supposed to take from that that she cannot read for herself? Cause a merchant’s wife definitely, definitely would know how to do that. 

Fleur is nowhere to be seen, however.

“This is an age of glorious discovery!” says Ninon. “Galileo observes the moons of Jupiter... But what is the role of women in this age of wonder?” - well, gee, i don’t know Ninon. Maybe you could have mentioned some female scientists of the era in addition to Galileo? Catherine de Parthenay, anyone? Or Marie Fouquet? Hell, Ninon de l'Enclos, my atheist queen, for whom this Ninon is doubtless named, was a notable woman in her own right! But no, we have to make women look more oppressed than they actually were to make this waste of space look more awesome. 

“My women of Paris, seek your own enlightenment!” - wrong era!

Therese, an orphan from a humble background, wanted to hand a petition to the queen about women’s education.  

“If she was an illiterate orphan she could not have written this. It is misguided but not unintelligent.” - says Richelieu. And indeed he turns out to be right. She didn’t write it. Which is fucking bizarre. 

Anne asks him if he doesn’t favor women’s education and he replies: “I admire learning wherever it is to be found, but this amounts to an attack on the authority of church and state.” Any French history buff know what the actual Richelieu’s thought of women’s education? @tatzelwyrm​? I’m gonna start a biography on him soon, but not until I’m done with this rewatch.

Ninon barges in past the guards and yells “stay out of my way, I will address the King!”. I’m sure this is meant to make her look badass, but she just comes across like a complete idiot who doesn’t understand that she would do better to follow court protocol, no matter how much she might dislike it, if she wants to achieve her goals.    

Luckily for her she’s pretty, so the king doesn’t mind.

“I want to know why this tragedy happened. If your guards are to blame I want them punished.” And then she gives Treville a dirty look! How dare you, you waste of skin and oxygen! Don’t you dare blame Treville for this mess! 

“You knew this lunatic?” - lmao, Richelieu!

Therese was the daughter of Ninon’s servant whom Ninon decided to educate. So she was educated, she COULD have written the petition herself. But she did not. Because when Richelieu says “she wrote this and was killed trying to give it to the Queen” Ninon screeches: “Don’t be ridiculous! She didn’t write it, I did!” And I mean, who exactly is looking down on servant girls here and saying it’s ridiculous to expect them to write something intelligent. It’s not Richelieu. 

But more importantly, WHY?? If Ninon wrote it, why couldn’t she hand it to the Queen? Why did this poor girl have to die? This is so, so stupid! I mean, okay, maybe Therese heard Ninon speak well of the queen and got the idea to hand her the petition on her own, without being told by Ninon to do so. But why did she have it in the first place, if it’s Ninon’s petition?

“Apparently the Comtesse de Laroque believes herself above the normal laws and conventions of society.” ´- well that’s an understatement.  

“The treasury is bankrupt and the country needs a new navy. Ninon has the wealth to provide it.” And that is why Richelieu sends Milady into the salon to find something to use against her. These two are so good in this, I love their scenes together! Pity about the rest of the episode. 

Richelieu is now freaking out about lesbians and Milady is just like “really, dude? really?”. I love her!

“Ninon must pay up or face destruction, I want every last penny from her!” - so it was not his intention to kill her, just to get the money. Interesting.

Fleur’s father is Bonacieux’s cousin. I love that, the commoners having family connections and support circles of their own.

The robbed priest is called Luca! Richelieu is “delighted to see him”, apparently, cause they’re old friends. And Louis isn’t, because he wrote a pamphlet arguing that Kings should bow down to the Pope’s authority. 

“We can’t have a comtesse abducting young women and spiriting them away to her boudoir!” - Oh, Richelieu! Do calm down.

It’s odd watching Richelieu try to use homosexuality to take Ninon down while shipping Trevilieu thou. 

Athos barges into Ninon’s salon, demanding to know where Fleur is and Milady very discreetly hides behind a pillar. Lol! 

And Ninon starts hitting on Athos immediately. She tells him that she’s often thought he’s handsome but the “melancholy aspect” to his looks is “probably only mental vacancy”. Who taught you how to flirt? Why must you be so abrasive and confrontational all the time? Like really, I get she’s meant to be a Strong Woman Who Don’t Take No Shit TM, but she just comes across like a loudmouth. 

Athos likes it thou!

“Forgive our intrusion-” “I will not forgive it!” - Jesus Ninon, it’s just a figure of speech, a polite gesture. People use these in conversation sometimes. She’s so unnecessarily rude smh.

Aramis says he “gladly acknowledges the superiority of the female sex” and I throw up in my mouth a little. That’s not feminism, that’s slimy!

D’artagnan: “If that wasn’t flirting, I don’t know what is.”  Porthos: “Rubbish! She can’t stand him.”  Aramis: “One day I’ll sit down and explain women to you.” - cause we’re all the same and no means yes, right writers?

Luca: “His holiness is concerned about the direction of French foreign policy.” Richelieu: “Well the pope is Spain’s performing monkey.” - he really is so funny! I know I keep saying that, but he is!

Also, YAY politics! Intelligent dialogue! I love this scene so much!

“In matters of religion I defer to Rome, in all else I am my country’s servant” - lol, Richelieu inventing the separation of church and state

Luca: “Is this your final word on the subject?” Richelieu: “It is.” - and that right there is where Luca decides to kill him. The actor plays it really well, knowing it’s coming I can see the briefest moment of regret in his eyes, but without hindsight I wouldn’t notice anything. And he gives Richelieu the poisoned gift. 

Also, isn't it the same guy who plays Margaret’s new man in Harlots? 

Athos says that Therese and Fleur were so far below Ninon in status that they were not in a position to make choices of their own free will. Which is fuckign stupid. But Ninon saying that she views all women as equal regardless of their birth is equally moronic. I mean, sure, they should be, but in reality they’re not and ignoring that doesn’t help anyone. And Athos does point out that Ninon’s money and position gives her certain privileges, but it sits wrong coming from him and not from Porthos or Milady or Constance, who are from poor/less wealthy backgrounds. That said, this is still one of the few semi intelligent scenes in this whole episode, so whatever. At least someone said it. 

Now she kisses him and invites him to dine! And he just looks sad.

Luca tells Richelieu to “deal with” Ninon “firmly”, cause the Pope is dying and Richelieu could be the next Pope if he shows himself a strong defender of the church against “heresy”. What heresy thou? Women learning to read? Lol, that’s so cartoonishly evil and ahistorical, but whatever. This at least explains where Richelieu’s desire to have her burned came from.

Richelieu: “I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a heretic.” Luca: “A woman who openly defies God's laws, what other word is there?” - what laws thou? what has she done, other than hold some salon meetings, as every other noblewoman was doing at the time?

Richelieu promises to consider his options and Luca tells him to pray to the poisoned bone for guidance, lol.

This right here is Richelieu letting personal feelings cloud his judgement, thou! Which he said he has learned no to do. But he allows himself to be carried away with visions of becoming Pope and honestly I don’t see how he can possibly believe that could happen with his foreign policy and how hated he is by the Vatican, as stated in this very scene.  

Milady and Ninon! I love that scene! Ninon clearly thinks she’s super special because she “takes the initiative” by kissing men instead of waiting to be kissed. She’s so damn smug about it! And Milady is just like “oh I could never be so bold” and I swear I can hear her laughing internally! 

And she very cleverly charms Fleur’s location out of Ninon!

Athos’s idea of a first date is the morgue. Charming.

Athos saying that Ninon is responsible for what happened to Therese because she gave a lowborn girl an education doesn’t sit well with me. Classist ass! But she is responsible for not thinking of Therese beyond how daring and adventurous and fun and positively scandalous it would be to educate a servant girl and then not bothering to care for her when she got bored. Cause if she had done, Therese could have come to her with her plan and she could have prevented her death. Because yes, regardless of her education, her background predisposed Therese to be naive about the King and Queen and how petitions work. Where was Ninon in all this, when a girl under her charge decided to do this foolish thing that cost her her life? Because if you want to be someone’s teacher you do have a duty of care. In short, Ninon is a classist ass as well! They’re perfect for each other!

So Luca’s stolen bag is in the morgue with the body of the thief who stole it. And Athos promises to send for it in the morning. I know it’s CSI: Musketeers and all, but why was it not delivered to Luca the moment it was found, lol? He’s a pretty important guest at the palace and it’s his property. 

Athos agrees with Ninon that marriage is a curse. LOL!

Ninon’s reason for not marrying is that she does not want a husband to own her wealth and body. Makes sense and that’s why many independently wealthy women chose to stay unmarried. Just pointing out the few things that make sense.

“You are a rebellious woman” - oh good, we managed to squeeze the title of the episode into the dialogue! 

Aramis just tossed a red guard out of Ninon’s house. Can’t tell if he’s dead or not, but certainly unconscious. 

There’s fighting. The red guards have swords, the musketeers have books. Athos screams “where is your authority for this!?!” - well, the Cardinal, I’d assume, since they are his guards. Oh bear of very little brain!

Fleur and some other runaway girls are found sleeping in a secret chamber and Ninon is arrested for abducting them.

Athos is all like “you said she wasn’t here” and Ninon tries to explain that Fleur did not want to be found and begs “make them stop” to which Athos replies “sorry, I can’t”, his voice and face making it very clear that he doesn’t want to. Because a woman lied to him! This is the worst crime! Really Ninon is lucky she’s being arrested right now, otherwise she’d end up swinging from a tree.

“Four young women! In their nightwear! I can only speculate as to the horrors they have endured!” - Richelieu really has a bee in his bonnet about lesbians. The days before p*rnhub must have been hard for a catholic cardinal. 

Luca is even worse thou! “Your majesty is joking but Satan is real! And his female familiars are everywhere amongst us.” Jesus christ guys, calm down! Have a wank or something!

“She had the girls, she lied, she brought her fate on herself.” - Oh shut up Athos! Not everything is about you and your relationship issues! As Aramis points out. Thank you, Aramis! And I never believed I’d ever say that.

Ninon/Aramis  > > > > > > > > > > Ninon/Athos

Aramis gives Ninon the cross Anne gave him. This is quite sweet!

“It’s not so easy when you don’t have money” Constance says and she is right. But it’s like the show is saying that the only way women can be independant is if they are independently wealthy like Ninon. But that’s not really true, Fleur could get a job such as a seamstress or pharmacist or grain merchant or actress or even as a secretary now that she knows latin and greek thanks to Ninon. Women did have jobs in 17th century France and even belonged to guilds etc. Not saying that Fleur would not be more financially secure still with a husband, but if she really doesn’t want that she has options and I don’t like how this supposed “feminist” episode constantly erases women’s actual history. 

Fleur’s father rages “what does she need an education for? She’ll be a seamstress until she’s married and then she’ll be a dutiful wife and mother.” But if he is Bonacieux’s cousin then they are in the same social class, that is to say, the merchant class. And merchant women had to keep their husbands’ shops when their husbands were away. They needed to know how to read and write and do sums. They needed this to be an attractive marriage prospect to a husband of their own social class! 

And the father wants to hit Fleur and D’artagnan all heroically threatens him. How boring!

Richelieu: “Many of our young women are educated. It’s not something we’re ashamed of.” Fleur: “Not just embroidery and sewing.”  Me: “WELL OF COURSE NOT!!!”

Then Fleur says Ninon taught them the “secrets of our bodies” and Richelieu is a hound on the scent!

“Be quiet or you’ll be gagged!” - Again Armand, this is neither the time nor the place to indulge your kinks. 

ENTER MILADY! 

She does such a brilliant job of her testimony! This is again her lying about rape and I talked about before why that is bad, but in this case I don’t mind cause it’s for state reasons and doesn’t in any way invalidate her own story the way the thing with D’artagnan does.

Athos completely LOSES HIS SHIT!! Not doing the defence any good there, buddy!

The look she gives him as she walks out is priceless!

Queen Anne to the rescue, bringing clemency from Louis! Clever girl, must have manipulated it out of him! Season 1 Anne was intelligent.

And Ninon ruins it by saying: “I have never consorted with the devil until this moment. I am looking at him.” To which Richelieu replies: “Condemned from her own mouth.” As any person with half a brain would. Jesus christ Ninon, you should have been gagged! For your own safety! 

And then Richelieu stops breathing! And we get Treville’s reaction to it, thank you camera people! Thou Treville mostly just looks confused, like “what is that drama queen doing now?” 

Now he’s twitching! And I’m sorry but it looks hilarious.

Aramis carries him to bed on his back and puts a hand over his mouth. I’m not sure that helps with the breathing issues... 

Louis pushes Aramis out of the way and cries “please don’t die! please don’t die!” aawwwwwwwwwww!

Aramis really saves his life here, huh.

Anne is briefly jealous about the cross and asks Aramis if Ninon is his lover. Lol! She never expected him to stalk her for the rest of her life, she fully expected him to keep lovers.  

Luca: “Satan turned his blood to acid at her command!” Porthos: “We’ll add Satan to the list of suspects.”

Fleur: “You think I poisoned him?” Constance: “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard even by musketeer standards.” - THANK YOU CONSTANCE!

Fleur is to be married to a 40 year old butcher. Poor girl!

“Was it you?” - LOL!

“Half the doctors say you’re doomed, the other half claim you’ll make a full recovery. There’s a lot of professional pride at stake.” - Milady is very funny too! But I’ve always known that! 

“Whatever happens to me, I want you to extract this confession from Ninon.” - translation: it doesn’t matter if I die, the main thing is that France gets that navy. For France, always. I’m amazed by how much he trusts Milady here thou.

Milady thinks the kneebone of St. Anthony is gross and “as much use as the doctors”. Bless her!

Constance very sweetly talks Fleur’s father out of forcing her to marry. Go Constance!

Ninon: “There is nothing worse than a woman who betrays her own sex” Milady: “I can think of a few things, but let’s not argue.” - THIS!! This is my favorite part of this whole miserable episode, because yes, with her background she can think of things Ninon couldn’t possibly imagine. It’s also a fuck you to that “don’t encourage girl on girl hate” line terfs and white feminists always hide behind when they get called out on their bullshit, though this wasn’t the point here. I love how she doesn’t even explain, too. Let’s not argue, cause what’s the point. You’ll never get it.

I do want to stress that Ninon is not wrong for educating other women and she has been unjustly condemned (althou I would argue that she might not have drawn Richelieu’s ire if she went about it in a more subtle, less smug way, for the safety of the girls she teaches if not for her own). But Milady is employed by the First Minister of France and is doing her job here, a job which she depends upon for her own independence and safety. As she says, Ninon didn’t do anything to her, she’s just a victim of circumstance. 

“If you don’t confess, the women of your salon will burn in your place. Surely you wish to save the lives of your accomplices in Satan?” - Milady does a good job of selling it, but if you think about it, that makes no sense. These women have already been publicly proclaimed Ninon’s victims. And if they have legal trouble with burning her alone, how would they manage a whole bunch of them, most of whom are also high ranking noblewomen?

Ninon falls for it thou. Fail!

Richelieu orders Ninon burned and Milady says that the Queen and King won’t like it. Richelieu replies that: “she’s irrelevant and a new navy will soothe his dismay.” He’s really underestimating season 1 Anne here. But season 2 will prove him right, sadly.

“The kingdom of heaven is a dream. Our only life is here.” - Go Milady!

Richelieu says he won’t burn her for heresy but to be careful cause “one day someone else might” and idk, but it comes across like pretty friendly advice, considering what he’s currently doing with Ninon. 

Now he worries he might go to hell! And Milady says he’s already there, lmaoo! I LOVE THIS SCENE!!

They go to the morgue to retrieve Luca’s bag and discover that the thief was poisoned in the same manner as the Cardinal. Thus the plot is uncovered.

“Open his mouth!” “You open his mouth!”

Luca kills a red guard and is about to kill Richelieu (who fights him with a fork!) when the musketeers burst in. And Richelieu curses them for being late!

Richelieu had apparently worked out that it was Luca who was trying to kill him at some point during the night. No idea how. 

Athos begs for Ninon’s life while the pire is already burning. And Richelieu agrees cause burning her is all very “dark ages”, like he said to begin with. He says he’s not a cruel man, just a practical one. But practicality sometimes requires cruelty. He’s not a sadist thou, that’s what he meant and that’s true. 

Athos drags Ninon off the burning pire. So the great feminist character got duped by Milady and then had to be rescued by her love interest. So good, much feminist. 

“As far as the world is concerned, Comtesse Ninon de Laroque died on that pire today.” Richelieu takes her lands, her property and her money and sends her into exile. Then he threatens to execute her if she ever tells anyone the truth of what happened.

“My voice will never be silenced, but I promise you will never hear it.” - the stupidest line of the whole episode and that’s saying something. Seriously, what does this mean? Your voice was silenced! Richelieu got your wealth which you could have used to educate more women. You were completely defeated. Like really, who is the idiot who wrote this? And what made them think this is in any way empowering or even just a satisfactory conclusion to Ninon’s acr?? Ughhhh!!

I do love Richelieu and Milady getting a rare victory thou! 

“Nothing, no person, no nation, no god will stand in my way.” - HOT!

Aramis gets his cross back lol. Otherwise it would have burned. 

Lmao, Richelieu sends Luca’s ashes to rome with a threat to the Pope.

And Capaldi pronounces “Richelieu” in a very strange way. 

Milady: “You do realise you’ll never be Pope?” Richelieu: “It’s an Italian club and largely a clerical position. I prefer something with a little more influence.” - L! O! L!

Ninon plans to open a school for poor girls and be a teacher. Well, idk, I hope she does a better job of it than she did with Therese.

Athos asks Ninon if “Madame de la Chapelle” ever told her anything about herself. And Ninon is like “so you did know her after all?” and he says “in another life” and she warns him to be careful because she has the cardinal’s protection so “a blow against her is a blow against him” and idk, does she realize that Milady was Athos’s wife here? Is that how I’m supposed to read it? He did tell her before that he used to be married.

Then she kisses him and tells him she could have loved a man like him. And she’s just way more into him than he is into her.

Lmaooo, Fleur is not forced to marry and can continue with her education and she’s “sure” that the woman who convinced her father was Ninon. And Constance doesn’t correct her and doesn’t even want the credit, but I’m mad lol, as if Ninon even remembers you exist Fleur!

D’artagnan gives Constance the credit, at least! And then comes his declaration of love, which is actually very sweet and I really liked them together in season 1! Constance is so beautiful in this scene too! It’s very well lit and she’s wearing that lovely dress!

Aaaaand we fade to black on some PG13 kissing and groping! Sorry, this was very long, but there was a lot to complain about.

In conclusion, awful! Like, the thing that bothers me the most is that this token girl power episode would not even have been radical in 1970, never mind today. The message is simply that women should have an education, which no sane person today would disagree with. It’s very safe and bland. And erases women’s real history in the process. It’s almost as if these male writers are congratulating themselves “weren’t things ever so bad Back Then, we are so much more progressive now”, instead of doing the truly radical thing and showing women’s real history, showing women in positions of power running their literary salons and not getting burned for it, showing women as independent businesswomen with an education! Why not give Bonacieux a female rival in the cloth business? Why not go deeper than “women are human beings” and give the episode a truly radical message that still resonates today. After all, we might be ever so educated now but it’s not like women have achieved equality. More on that in this old post: https://kuningannasansa.tumblr.com/post/126434697304/the-problem-of-ninon 

Anyway, I really hope the next episode will be better! 

Red Guards killed: 1 or 2, impossible to really tell

Ladies killed: Therese

Best Dressed: Ninon. She did have some pretty dresses. 

#the musketeers #bbc musketeers #cardinal richelieu #milady de winter #anti ninon #musketeers rewatch

[rainbowsoracle]

Zodiac Sign Readings for the August 2020 New Moon

This is a reading I did with the intention of; what does each sign need to release during this new moon?I did this reading using both tarot and oracle cards,as well as getting channeled messages. You can check out the reading for your sun, moon, or rising sign, however I prefer to read for “dominant signs,” meaning that if one sign or planet is dominant in your birth chart (tropical or sidereal) then that reading is for you. (that is why messages for signs like Gemini and Virgo will be similar because I like to channel planetary energies and both are ruled by mercury) Although this reading is especially for tomorrow’s new moon, it can be used as a timeless reading meaning whenever you get this message it will be relevant. 

Okay, here goes.

Aries: Aries, probably one of the most cautionary spreads that I’ve gotten during this reading for all the signs- as well as the most current- there is someone - either a friend, partner, romantic interest or colleague that you are involved with that does not have your best interests at heart or is not being entirely truthful. Perhaps there is simply a bit of toxicity in your your relationships right now, or something more sinister either way there is a relationship with a person in your life that needs to be seriously examined and cleaned up; even possibly released. I can’t tell you anything for sure because this is a general reading but “this person” is potentially a very shady character and really not what you need in your life right now; ask yourself, is this someone that I really want to share myself with? Look at the situation objectively, my guess is that you are already aware of the shady behavior and are just choosing to ignore it because the conclusion might be painful. But it is most often best to face the truth; all  the signs are there you just need to acknowledge it. 

Taurus: Dear Taurus, my heart really goes out to you. And I am not just saying that, I mean it; it wasn’t too long ago that I lost a relationship with a girl that I was deeply in love with after a painful and uncomfortable breakup; I know how it feels. Right now you may feel as if your love life is dead, like there is no hope for you, you may feel disillusioned or betrayed, your heart broken and your trust shattered. And spirit wants me to tell you that it is okay to feel this way, to experience this pain and to grieve, because this is the only way you can release it and move on. And I want you to know that you will, with time.  All is not lost. Although it may feel like whatever or whomever it was that hurt you left you dead inside, I want you to know that eventually these wounds will heal and you will come alive again, your pain will fade.  I also got another message; although love of any kind is probably the last thing on your mind right now, I want you to know that after you have healed god or whoever you believe in has plans for you. So have faith; it will get better.  ( I get it, I’m like done with girls and guys for the rest of eternity lol)  (p.s.  I also did a slightly similar to the reading I did for Libra; you might want to check out the one as well as Libra is ruled by the same planet) In my experience lavender, rose, hibiscus, rose quartz, and angelite are very good at mending heartbreak,as well as lots of herbal tea. 

Gemini: So Gemini, this reading is a little bit similar to the one that I did for virgo ( possibly because you are both ruled by mercury)  but with a bit more urgency and a more serious tone. Essentially, you have been focusing too much on other people lately, and you need to take a break and focus more on yourself; especially your or mental physical health which could be weak at present. While you don’t need to go into hermit mode, spirit is telling me you need to release a lot of your social obligations and spend some time with yourself. Particularly if you are a witch or pagan, now is the time to focus on your craft and connect with your gods, as well as to darker and more primal side of yourself.   Also, I don’t usually work with the Egyptian pantheon at all but the god Horus was coming through very strongly for you, as well as the stone jasper. 

Cancer: Okay ladies and gent’s, I’ll give it to you straight; it’s cleanup time. You currently have a lot of stagnant and old energy, emotions,  and things around you, that need to be cleaned and cleared. It’s a hectic time, you’ve got  a lot of choices, a lot of clutter, things lying around, emotions and memories that have been hastily put away that need to be taken out, evaluated, and possibly cleaned up or released Due to all this literal and figurative clutter in life you are having a hard time being organized and making good decisions. I also got another message; you need to release the need to over contemplate the future or prospective offers and decisions; if there are multiple. Sometimes making any decision that might not be the right one is better then making no decision at all because you are so worried you will make the wrong choice. We all need to think before we act, but in your case, you are doing a little too much of it. Release this, cleanup your life a little bit, and like “The Chariot,” try and facilitate movement in your life, any movement. Some crystals that might help with this are smoky quartz for absorbing and cleaning up  stray energies and moonstone, which will help connecting you to your intuition which will help you make better decisions. 

Leo: Wow Leo, all I can say is that I am pretty sure the reason that I did this reading was just for you. This is a very hard reading to to do, because I feel that there are a lot of intense and deep ancestral and family memories here, both of which are very difficult to break and address. For one, you are holding on way too tight to something, which I sense seems to be very deeply connected to your soul. It could be an oppressive religion, a rigid belief system, a relationship with a person or family member that is oppressive and doesn’t allow for freedom or self expression. While this may be especially true for women, I feel that your divine feminine has taken a lot of trauma and injury throughout this life, as we live in a patriarchal society that continues to put women’s sexuality, liberty, and spirituality down.  While this may be true for all of us, I feel it is especially true for you; and you are suffering because of it. It’s time to become your own  strong independent woman ( or man) and release the bullshit that you have been taught since birth that is restricting your power and hurting you. While these traumas cannot simply be  cast aside at your whim, it might be helpful to know that it is something that you need to start working on and addressing in the long term. Rejoice in your sexuality and individual connection with the divine, don’t be afraid to go out on your own and discover yourself or what it is that you truly believe in. The goddess brighid and the stone jade are two things that came through during this reading that may help you in your journey.

Virgo: So Virgo,overall the reading that I got for you was generally positive. Overall, it seems that you are generally doing alright right now, however I would caution you against giving too much of yourself to other people and not focusing on your self enough. Whether this means overworking yourself at your job, allowing your coworkers or family to demand too much of you. Release the need to be of service to others non-stop (especially being a selfless community oriented sign like Virgo) and take some time to focus on yourself, standing up to demanding people if need be. Think, “The Hermit,” from rider- waite’s major aracana. 

Libra: Ahhh Libra, the romantic Venus ruled sign,  love is strange isn’t it? I guess there is all a point in our adult life when we realize that this is the case, and that the “princess in a tower white knight coming to rescue her from  the fire breathing dragon fairy tale” doesn’t really exist, and that love can be brutal, painful, messy, and sometimes really really sad. I feel right now you are going through a period of disillusionment regarding romance and relationships. Perhaps you are a member of the LGBT community, and you are just starting to realize the extent of your identity or are becoming involved in an unconventional  or unusual romance or partnership. Either way, past rejections, a cheating partner, internalized homophobia or romantic disillusionment might be keeping you from fully enjoying what you have right now. Try and release these negative experiences and beliefs yourself, go to a pride parade if applicable,  just remember that love is beautiful regardless of what other people think. 

Scorpio: You are currently wishing for someone or something to return to the way it was, because you have that something. Whether this be a the death of a loved on or a pet, a lost job or home, a parents divorce, a breakup with a friend or romantic partner; Scorpio you are currently pining. I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t, because it is normal and healthy to face our darkness, and whatever it was that was taken away from you also took a piece of your soul with it. However, I would encourage you to grieve in a healthy way that enables you to keep on living your life and planning for the future, because this unhealthy obsession with the past could be festering and turning into unbridled rage, confusion, jealousy, guilt, and hurt. While I cannot tell you to release the past I can tell you to try and deal with it in a more healthy way. This might be a great time for shadow work, getting in touch with the darker sides of yourself, connecting with cathonic deities; especially Pluto/ Hades, who came in really strong during this reading.

Sagittarius:  Alas, poor adventurous,  fun loving Sagittarius. Quarantine has really hit you hard hasn’t it?  Take it from someone with a Sagittarius moon, this is no time to be a social person, and I mean it’s summer and we can’t even hang out with friends at the beach ughh. Although this message is decidedly more light then a lot of the others it still needs to be said, because it touches on an important topic that a lot of us are dealing with right now; mental health and depression during this decidedly difficult and isolating time. We are all going through a time of isolation, stagnation, and boredom, but please don’t loose hope! I can’t tell you to “just snap out of it,”  or that “everything will be okay,” because that’s not how mental health works for one and secondly I can’t say for sure that it will. But I can remind you with the best of intentions that a  better future does await so please don’t lose hope. Try if you can to stay positive and release negative thinking regarding this situation. 

Capricorn: Look Capricorn,  I am going to be honest with you, this one might be kind of your fault. Just saying. Those fights with your friends, that standoff with your room mate, the silent treatment that is going on between you and your boyfriend, the tension with your parents... ? I am not saying that you don’t have a valid point or that the other party isn’t in any way at fault. But you might be contributing to the problem in a way that is unhelpful. Capricorn, it’s time to bury the hatchet, swallow your pride, do whatever needs to be done to heal the rift between you and people in your life, regardless of whether it’s a pleasant experience. This can be very difficult- especially for a prideful sign like Capricorn- however until you do you will miss out on people that deep down you know you really do care about and want to spend time with. I don’t really have any advice for you, accept that with a bad attitude you will never get anywhere; so do what you know  in your heart needs to be done. 

Aquarius: Aquarius my heart goes out to you right now, as I have gotten the message that you recently experienced some heartbreak or emotional pain due to physical or mental injuries or pain, breakups in relationships or friendships, etc. Whatever this is had afflicted you is continuing to affect you right now and is dimming your light, causing you to become weighed down and your aura to weaken. It may seem that carrying on as usual is for the best right now, But if you don’t address your trauma these wounds are just going to fester and leave you more and more vulnerable.  Spirit is telling me that you need to release the need to “just keep going,”  because you need to stop and take care of yourself in order to move on with your life right now. Spend dome time in the sun, reconnect with friends and family, try out therapy, go to church; treat yourself to some good healthy food. Now is the time for creature comforts, curl up on the couch with a good book and a blanket. Rose quartz, lavender,  and the colors pink and green  right now will help heal your damaged heart chakra.

Pisces: My fellow Pisces, you are currently undergoing or about to undergo a great transition in your life. The universe or divine is currently on a path of destruction;  however there is a need for you to trust the outcome of whatever happens will be in your best interests.  For us to experience rebirth we must first experience death, and some major “The Tower” moments. Especially in regards to financial matters remember that while money and financial matters you might be experiencing some losses ( the loss of a job, a missed financial matter, property losses ) however I’m getting the message that in the long run this will be for the best ( a better job, better financial opportunities, etc. ) Do what you can to release over worrying about our physical well being; this is for the best. Try and connect with the Goddess Kali right now (if you are drawn to her) she came through very strong in this reading and I feel she may be what you need right now.  

Notes:

The decks I used 1) The everyday with tarot 2)  The Oracle of Shadow and Light 

I do reversals. Deal with it. 

Please like and or reblog. It helps get my message out. Thanks ;) 

#daily tarot #freetarot #tarotdaily #tarottribe #free tarot #tarot #witchcraft #witch community #kitchen witch #witchcore #witchblr #tarotblr #tarot beginner #tarotbeforebed #witch basics #witchythings #witchyvibes #baby witch #pagan witch #paganism #pagans of tumblr #hellenic pagan #paganlife #paganpride #paganwoman

[skamofcolor]

why are you one of the Eve haters? Is it just because she's not a POC?

Lol, so the short answer is yes.

But if you feel like reading me rant, here’s my longer response. This is just gonna be about the casting and styling because I think that’s the part that most important in terms of this blog. I do have my own thoughts on characterization, but let me not get into that here, lol.

When the casting call went out, the show said it could be for a queer woman of any ethnicity. So maybe this was on me, but that alone sparked a hope that they would be casting a Woman of Color, particularly someone who was a Black stud/butch/tomboi/masc/etc. lesbian in that role. When I found out that they cast a skinty feminine white woman instead, it was extremely disheartening. There was literally no reason why they had to cast her as white. Even if she is Grace’s cousin that A) is a choice made by the showrunners and B) doesn’t rely on whiteness to be true. Multiracial families exist.

My issue is that someone’s ethnoracial identity absolutely cannot be thought of as a separate entity from their gender/sexuality.

Okay, so let me explain.

Every version of Eskild is not only vital to their Noora’s storyline, but to their Isak’s. And for me, that’s why Eve’s casting made no sense to me the most. Now, to be fair: we had a submission earlier that said it wasn’t right that no Eskild was getting the same scrutiny as Eve, and I think that’s a fair assessment (and the submission is worth reading). No other Eskild has gotten this kind of criticism for being a white cis guy.

But for me personally, when it came to the other remakes, my annoyance was always at the lack of diversity in the Isaks first and foremost. This is because it stood to reason that whomever was cast as Eskild would have to match up. I think at a certain point I was resigned to the idea that each remake would have cis white gay Eskilds for cis white gay Isaks. Would it have been really nice to have more gender/racial diversity? Yes, of course. To me though, it didn’t feel as pertinent for those remakes to cast diverse Eskilds. Both because of my resignation and also because… tbh this kind of matching made sense to me in terms of an intersectional lens - meaning the types of discrimination that Isak faced should match up with Eskild, in order to really make the Pride lecture make sense. Right or not, it’s how I felt. Obviously other folks, especially lgbtq+ MoC who don’t have any rep in the Skams, can and might feel differently.

Now, when I’m saying intersectional lens, I want to be clear. When Kimberlé Crenshaw  first coined intersectionality (though ofc her focus was on Black women specifically, not all PoC) she wasn’t really talking about identity at all, she was talking about discrimination. it means that the oppression people with multiple marginalized identities face has to do with overlapping forms of discrimination.

Isak only has one marginalized identity. On the discrimination he faces from that alone, Eskild can wholeheartedly relate. That’s what make that mentorship/friendship so important and more equitable.

Shay on the other hand has multiple marginalized identities: woman, Black, lesbian. The discrimination she faces isn’t just because she’s Black, or just because she’s a woman, or just because she’s a lesbian. They all intersect, and the sexism, antiblack racism, and homophobia she will face are  inextricably intertwined. There is no and never will be a white lgbtq+ person can ever, nor will ever, understand what it means to navigate the world as an lgbtq+ Person of Color.This is the heart of my disappointed with Eve’s casting.

Again - as a Black lesbian, Shay will have to deal with sexism/antiblackness/homophobia. All as one, all informing each other, and inseparable. This is something a white woman, even if she experiences sexism/homophobia, will never, ever be able to grasp. Even if Eve were butch, she wouldn’t ever be able to understand this experience. White women do not experience sexism the way a Black woman or an other WoC does. White lgbtq+ people do not experience homophobia or transphobia the way a Black person or an other PoC does. There is no possible way for them to know what we go through.

And so. The idea of having a white woman lecture Shay on Pride? On the discrimination she’s going to face? On the history of lgbtq+ liberation in the U.S? Specifically when it was started by trans women of color? It’s ugly to me.

It’s true we don’t know what they will do in Shay’s season. But I can’t stop thinking about this. I’m not speaking for all lgbtq+ PoC, just from my experience. I honestly do know that there are lgbtq+ PoC who are really freaking excited about Eve. And that’s great for them, honestly. If other folks can still see themselves in Eve and feel represented, that’s a good thing.

But for many of us, we didn’t/don’t have any lgbtq+ characters of color to look up to. The majority of lgbtq+ characters in the U.S. media have been white. Even in 2018, 58% of lbpq+ characters in the media were white. And even when we do get lgbpq+ characters of color, most of them weren’t stud/butch/tomboi/masc/etc. or gender non-conforming. Rarely are they trans or nonbinary. They didn’t and don’t reflect a lot of the realities that we live in. This lack of visibility means something. When every lgbtq+ person you see on TV is white, it’s alienating. (See this Autostraddle survey for more on this data.)  

But I can’t feel that way. Because I was a Shay, and in my experience, being lectured to by white people only served to push me deeper into the closet. It only made me think that being gay was for white people. Because their whiteness protected them and they got to be out in a way I thought I would never be. That is, until I met older lgbtq+ PoC. Who looked like me and shared my cultures and got it. And yes, she’s a TV character. But I’m devastated that from what we’ve seen, Shay won’t get this.

Fine, though, they cast who they cast. My biggest issue is in terms of presentation and style. First, it literally makes no sense to me why Eve isn’t a butch lesbian. Second, I HATE the way they styled her in hipster faux-poverty aesthetics.

We look at the role of Eskild and his characterization, his femininity is a huge part of who he is. It’s a massive part of the Pride lecture he gives Isak, especially because a large part of Isak’s internalized homophobia comes from just wanting to be “normal.” Eskild is not ashamed of being flamboyant/feminine because it’s who he is, and he said a big fuck you to gender roles and expectations. This is the same with the other Esikld remakes that we’ve seen. They show that being who you are is never a stereotype.

Binaries are fake and socially constructed, yes. BUT with Eskild’s femininity in mind, it would only make sense to make Eve butch. There is a massive stigma against GNC lesbians/queer women not only in general society but in lgbtq+ spaces. This is not to bash or police feminine/femme lgbtq+ women (I’m one of them!) but it’s also to acknowledge that the ways in which butch/stud/tomboi/masc/etc. women express themselves makes them extremely visible, and that’s not a privilege. Butch women face high rates of sexual violence and assault based on their appearance in the same way that feminine gay men do.

And even with the increase in lgbtq+ women in media (again see the Autostraddle survey) the majority of portrayals are NOT of butch/stud women. Which fucking sucks because that’s erasing a huge population within lgbtq+ communities. It’s not that having a butch white woman lecture Shay really makes it any better for me personally, but it would’ve made so much more sense to have Eve be butch. Because that’s the direct correlation to Eskild’s femininity.

Finally, once you cast someone you can style their character anyway you want. Just because Eve’s actress dresses/looks as she does doesn’t mean Eve has to. So why did the showrunners chose to style Eve the way they did? Rather than do something actual subversive, they styled her like every other 20-something middle class white hipster who relies on an aesthetic of poverty. (I know one of her defining character traits now is that she never has any money, but… something about that framing feels like it’s supposed to be kitschy and not because she’s literally impoverished. Could be wrong, but look at Grace in comparison.).

Personally, this stylization is especially hard to witness because of how many white lgbtq+ people I know who dress and act exactly like Eve. It’s not something that’s specific to white people - I’ve seen plenty of middle to upper class PoC aestheticize poverty too - but this kind of thing is often rooted in the junctions of class and whiteness. For more on this, I would really suggest reading this article. It really gets into this like… fetish that middle/upper class lgbtq+ people have for “looking” poor.

Anyway this is really long so let me wrap up. My issue here is mainly what my issues has consistently been with some of these shows. The showrunners want to include “diverse” issues and (for the most part) a “diverse” cast but it seems like they don’t have a crew that have strong race/gender/class analyses. Eve could’ve really been something but from casting and styling alone, her character already falls flatly for me.

So, yes. At the base of it is because she’s not a Black stud, but it goes deeper than that, too.

- mod Jennifer

#answered ask #long post