Here’s a thought, maybe people’s growing irreverence for 9/11 is because it was a long time ago and younger generations weren’t as affected by it, or maybe they are so sick of the way it has been basically commercialised by politicians and used as a device to justify incalculable pain and they are tired of it being cynically trotted out every year and told to never forget while every year they are also told to all but ignore mass shootings and US humanitarian crimes.
And like, I dunno, maybe it isn’t about disrespecting those who died but refusing, for any number of reasons, to be a part of the governmental hallmark industry that has built up around it.
Canadians aren’t just apathetic about labour rights, they’re apathetic about politics in our own country in general.
That’s part of the reason I made this blog, to try to get people to care more about what is going on in this country, and hopefully change things.
Activism, online or in person I think can help stir people from their apathy and try to change things for the better.
But I think to start you need to get people to care and stay informed about these issues in the first place. So I think just engaging and talking about these issues regularly will help.
It’s that time of the month, the time when Lizzy haters use absolutely anything and everything to tear that character to shreds for behaving like a human being
The thing that really gets me about the scans that we do have of Lizzy and Edward’s carriage conversation is that she is torturing herself over a hypothetical situation and it’s so god damn heartbreaking but ppl are fuckin coming out of the woodwork to call her stupid/childish/the worst/etc. Her whole childhood she was trained and being prepared to protect RC. She was chosen as his fiancée for that specific reason, bc she was really strong. And then he dies and she feels a weird sense of guilt bc she was always told that she was supposed to protect him. And then, to her understanding, he miraculously comes back! And they eventually begin to grow a little closer! And she develops feelings for him! And then she slowly starts to piece together that he’s been lying to her for 3, almost 4, years about his identity and that she really has lost the person she was supposed to protect but she keeps denying it until someone comes along and confirms all her suspicions and gives her another chance to protect that person. Only now, she feels conflicted bc she cares about OC and the plan is accuse him of a crime and potentially send him to jail but she’s being manipulated by expert liars so she goes along with it
Cut to the carriage scene where she is finally able to speak to her brother, the one person who loves her unconditionally and was heading the search for her when she ran away, about all these feelings she’s been bottling up 7 months. She’s saying that OC lied to her about being his twin but then she’s also talking about if he had been honest with her from the beginning, would she have been disappointed that he was the one that survived instead of RC, her fiancé, and if she’s really that cruel and horrible to even think that which is some heavy shit. She’s wrestling with her conscience in that carriage scene and it’s so tragic that this person who has been one of the most morally upright in this series full of terrible ppl has been put in this situation where no matter the outcome, she loses. She either loses OC, who she has real feelings for, or she loses RC for the third time, a person she has been trained and chosen to protect all her life
as someone with a bachelor’s degree in english, i am inexpressibly tired of people telling me to get highly specific jobs that often require highly specific degrees. “just go write for a magazine!” you need a journalism degree for that. “just teach!” you need a teaching certificate, and also fuck you. “just go work at a tutoring place!” tutoring children with learning disabilities, which make up the majority of the clientele at those places, requires not only a teaching certificate but a specialized master’s degree. “just go work at a library!” you need a master’s degree in library science to be a librarian. it is actually a highly skilled and extremely competitive field. you don’t just “go work at a library,” you train for years in the vain hope that you will get one of handful of available jobs. “just go work at a library.” the nerve. the unmitigated gall. “just go work at a library.” ugh.
alright listen up. i had no idea this was going to be the most popular post i ever made, and i’ve gotten some really nice comments and some pretty condescending ones. let’s get a few things straight:
first, this post is based on MY experiences and MY research in MY geographical area. i don’t know if it really is any different in big cities, small towns or elsewhere in the world, but where i live this is how it is.
second, this post is not about my burning desire to work in a library. i honestly don’t want to, it’s just something that’s been recommended to me ad nauseam.
thirdly, i don’t KNOW what you can do with an english degree. if i knew that, would i be having all these jobs recommended to me? i don’t have a job! i haven’t figured out what i’m doing with my life! i don’t KNOW!
and finally, several people have expressed their confusion about why i or anyone would get an english degree if there are no jobs for it, and i find these comments to be especially tedious.
i. was. told. there. would. be. jobs.
english is the only thing i’ve ever been good at, so i knew that’s what i wanted to study. it was my passion, and i was assured that following your passions was what college was about. i went to a meeting for prospective english majors freshman year and the head of the department told us all that he was constantly getting requests from employers who would tell him “send me all your english majors!” he told us if we majored in english we’d have the critical thinking skills to do whatever we liked. we’d be in impossibly high demand.
these were all, as i have found out, baldfaced lies. BUT, not in the way you think.
it’s true, english majors are not in as high demand as the department head led us to believe. but you know who is in incredibly high demand? NO ONE! there is no major that makes you imminently employable, not a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree or a doctorate. you are equally unemployable with a business degree, or a law degree, or a degree in marine biology. you could have a degree in any STEM field and you’d still struggle to find a job. the only difference between those degrees and an english degree is where you’re told to “just get a job doing x.”
we are in an employer’s market right now. there are more people than there are jobs to be had, partly because none of the baby boomers will fucking retire, but also because of all the people who have to work two jobs to make ends meet because nowhere pays a living wage anymore. no one is safe, nothing is sacred, and if you think “well if you’d only gotten a different degree this wouldn’t be happening lol” then you need to pull your head out of your ass and look around you my friend. this is not a result of our poor choices. we did not do this to ourselves. it was done to us, by the ivory tower shit-heads who line their pockets with our student loan money.
tbh tho vld deserves more credit for having a target audience of young boys and using that platform to systematically dismantle toxic masculinity over and over again
these are just some scenes off the top of my head from the new season, and it doesn’t even begin to encapsulate the multitude of healthy messages imbued throughout the entirety of the series.
the show repeatedly conveys that men can talk to their friends about their feelings and be respected and heard. that women are independent agents with intelligence and strength and exist as more than a potential love interest or catalyst to further a man’s narrative. that men can tell their friends and family they love them. that men can cry and be scared and be vulnerable and it’s okay. it doesn’t diminish your strength or worth as a person and it doesn’t make you any less of a hero.
and then there’s the fact that the man who most closely resembles the archetype of a stereotypical hero in a young male-targeted show is a gay, disabled Japanese man with ptsd.
whether or not you find the representation to be satisfying, through the lens of their target audience, shiro being the person he is–relationship or no–is hugely important.
is the writing perfect all the time? no. but the vld creators took a (kinda goofy) mecha show from the 80s and built a subtle but beautifully healthy portrayal of masculinity for a target audience of young boys and I think the fandom at large can get so caught up in our own lens that we lose perspective on that.
anyway, I’m just really appreciative, and I can’t wait to watch the show with my nephew when he’s old enough.
All of this!!
“I think the fandom at large can get so caught up in our own lens that we lose perspective”
That’s so, so, so damn true. It reminds of this twitter threadtalking about a woman’s reaction to the autistic muppet on Sesame Street. How she was initially offended and angry about it, but then realized she was looking at it through her own lens, and not the lens of a child.
What I want and hope for from a series as a queer adult is very different from what young boys and girls want. Especially in regards to shipping, we forget that for young kids, any kind of romance is likely an afterthought. They don’t care yet, and it probably isn’t going to leave much of an impression on them. They won’t pick up on the subtitles of various dynamics.
What do they notice?
Characters of many different shapes, sizes, and races all given respect and love. Characters voicing their feelings and modeling healthy ways to maintain relationships. Characters handling their own struggles as best they can and reaching out to others for help.
In terms of romance, I’d say the most obvious relationship kids would pick up on is between Lance and Allura, as Lance’s feelings are made very explicit all along. And we are shown that when he’s acting like a womanizer who treats her like an object to be won, he’s the butt of all the jokes. But when he grows to love, respect, and care for her as a friend, she reciprocates.
The fact that they slipped in a (rather subtle) genuine attempt at queer rep on top of it? It’s there for the kids old enough to pick up on, and even that much is meaningful. Is it everything I want as an adult? Not even close, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Like OP said, I’m very appreciative of all the amazing strides Voltron has made, turning the franchise into something beloved by people of all ages.
White people really complain about non western men oppressing women by “forcing” “oppressive” dress codes like sarees and hijab/burqa over women when it is literally MANDATORY for women to wear high heels in MANY MANY workplaces in western countries n they can be sent back home if they arent wearing them. It is shown how employers still prefer women who wear makeup on jobs than bare faced women in the west lol. Like maybe its just me but at least those “oppressive” hijabs and sarees are much better than footware which make it harder for women to move around and causes damage to women’s feet if they wear them regularly and makeup which adds more burden on alot of women’s budget lol – mod ro
One of my favorite things to see is random people trying to interact with unfamiliar outdoor cats. Just standing there with a hand out, making kissy noises, maybe meowing at the cat while it ignores them. Mankind at its best and least dignified
if you want to interact with a cat that doesn’t know you, sit down not facing it. glance at it occasionally and make an inviting noise, but mostly just play with your phone or whatever.
the cat will almost certainly come over to check you out sooner or later. it’ll stay out of arm’s reach because it doesn’t know if you’re a jerk. offer your hand and let the cat sniff. wait. if the cat wants pettins, it will indicate that by noofing your hand, flopping on its side, or coming in close.
the cat may want to be bros but not get pettins. in that case, it will sit or lie near you but out of reach. this is friendly! the cat is saying, you’re a person in my neighborhood! hi neighbor!
of course, it’s possible that the cat is a great big cuddleslut and will come love all over you. that happens too. but if it doesn’t, that doesn’t mean it’s an unfriendly cat. be chill and let the cat choose how close to get, and you’ll find most cats are pretty friendly.
Unpopular opinion: Filler episodes are good because most of them provide a nice break from heavy plot lines and it’s fun to see what the characters are like in different situations and sometimes they’re just plain entertaining
sometimes I just want to talk about media theory and its relation to media criticism. stuff like “criticism of media should be proportional to its source, reach, and context in order to be effective” where:
Source: is the media putting itself forward as an expert, educational, or reliable source? Is the creator seen as knowledgeable? Historical accuracy is very important in documentaries, far less so in doctor who episodes. Documentaries should face harsher criticism than doctor who for historical innacuracy.
Reach: how many people can be expected to see this? How accessible will it be? What are the barriers to entry? highly promoted movies should face harsher criticism than unlisted YouTube videos. Obscene content with no warning should face harsher criticism than obscene content with a warning.
Context: where was this published? How does it compare to other similar works on the same platform and in the same time period? How reputable is the platform and the media shown alongside it? Works published in an online journal should face harsher criticism than tumblr posts. 20 year old editorials should face less harsh criticism for not using modern vocabulary.
Effective: how likely is this criticism to stimulate a productive discussion and potentially effect change? Would a change by the creator and/or audience have an impact that’s worth your time? Spending 48 hours to get someone to take down a post with less than 200 views just isn’t worth it, especially if you increase its reach in the process. Sometimes languishing in obscurity is a more effective criticism than anything you could say.
Sometimes languishing in obscurity is a more effective criticism than anything you could say.
This is something I feel like everyone needs to understand a lot better.
Stressed, Depressed, and Story Obsessed 