Lucy Lawless was not a particularly burly woman, but somehow she made Xena seem like a fucking tank and I don’t understand how.

Don’t get me wrong—she was strong, and certainly not a waif, but more than almost any other female superhero actress I’ve ever seen, Lucy Lawless exuded physical power and weight that I actually believed (when she wasn’t somersaulting in front of a ridiculous greenscreen).

When I close my eyes and imagine Xena, I imagine her fucking shredded. Just absolutely ripped. Muscles McGillicutty out here. She could burst through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man and kick my ass.  

But then when I actually look at Lucy Lawless out of costume, even when she was playing Xena, she looks... average. A gorgeous woman, absolutely, and rather tall, but not the Amazon she comes across as when she’s inhabiting the role. 

With few exceptions (like Linda Hamilton), I don’t get that from other actresses portraying physically strong characters. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman costume has a very similar design, but I never believed in the physicality of her character even when the CGI physics are more realistic.

Steven L. Sears at The USC Center on Public Diplomacy, Oct 25, 2006

On how he approaches female characters

”The interesting question about writing the female character...the female character was an object, it was a plot twist, it was something to motivate the male to do something heroic. It was never accepted as a character. To me that was the biggest difference, first. Secondly, was the portrayal, and I mean the physical actress portrayal...When we hired Lucy Lawless, what really impressed me was her physicalization. She did not apologize through her body. And that had been the biggest critique about women characters. Even wonder woman. They apologize through their body. ‘I’ve got to be masculine, but I’m gonna off-set it by doing it in a feminine way’. Whereas Lucy was like ‘Okay, I’m gonna do it.’ And she did it. And I remember sitting there, watching that with the original supervising producer and saying ‘That is sexy.’ Because there’s no apologies. That’s a real character. And that is attractive to me and I’ll bet it’s gonna be attractive to other people.”

God!!! If only this were normalized for female characters. The Terminator franchise does a pretty good job at having physical women; Dark Fate also had Grace move like a real person inhabiting space.

Grace has short hair. She looks like a typical athletic butch woman:

Being butch is not offensive. Portraying tough butch women in action movies is not some regressive anti-feminist act. I can and I will compare Grace to Xena because she is a female character portrayed as strong and tough in a very natural and unapologetic way—there are no concessions to preserving an elegant or dainty aesthetic when she fights.

Women come in all shapes and sizes. If you reject the importance or value of women’s strength because they have “””male features””” and you think that’s regressive or not good representation you can eat my entire ass, and also Xena’s.

There’s like 12 different kinds of tension in this image.

quick question

why is the one in the middle wearing 5 shirts

that’s why she’s being bullied

As a cold bitch I completely understand her wearing 5 shirts. Though she’s got it a little backwards and her color choices together are the real reason she’s being bullied.

Oh god, the red and gray parts are together judging by the zipper. Yeah bully her for that vest choice alone.

I know the whole "humans are weird and scary" thing as a sci fi concept has been rendered kind of cutesy and outre recently but like humans are absolutely the creepiest fuckers on this planet and I WILL die on this hill, doubtless pursued tirelessly by dozens of freakishly vertical ape creatures with unprecedented levels of thermoregulation, possibly accompanied by other animals that they have somehow formed bizarre social bonds with. Oh my god humans are the worst

Other Terrible things about humans!

"And they came unto Alma; and the one who was the foremost among them said unto him: Behold, what shall these my brethren do, for they are despised of all men because of their poverty, yea, and more especially by our priests; for they have cast us out of our synagogues which we have labored abundantly to build with our own hands; and they have cast us out because of our exceeding poverty; and we have no place to worship our God; and behold, what shall we do?" - Alma 32:5

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @abpoli @politicsofcanada

On the one hand, this is sorely needed and long overdue (though I’ll believe it when I see it).

On the other…

Guys, I have some terrible news for you about what militaries do.

Hot take!

Heavenly Father is Lawful Good, Jesus is Neutral Good, and Heavenly Mother is Chaotic Good

H.F. will reward good and punish bad according to the Rules We All Agreed On. You can ask for help but you have to fill out the right forms.

H.M. doesn't even care if you get her name right and will pretend to be anyone from Hera to the Virgin May as an excuse to visit her kids.

Jesus is just stuck in the middle trying to convince his dad to ease up on the rules and his mom to stop showing up to witches covens.

via twitter: @polychromantium

Ableds' disrespect for the bodily autonomy of people with disabilities has really been highlighted for me during this pandemic. I had four (4!) people come right up and touch my wheelchair to "help" me today. I was out for a beach day and on my way back to the car. They decided that I could not possibly do so on my own, that I clearly needed many strangers to come up and attempt to push my wheelchair. Now, this is never ok. You can not just go up and try to push someone's wheelchair. It is less ok during a global pandemic when you go right into a stranger's space with no mask and then touch their mobility device. This is not helpful. It is endangering the person that you are trying to help, and yourself. Don't push people's wheelchairs without explicit consent. Do follow social distancing guidelines.

Touching someone’s wheelchair without explicitly being asked is assault. Pushing them without being asked is kidnapping.

But apparently ableds aren’t satisfied with just assaulting and kidnapping us and feel like they need to add manslaughter to that by giving COVID-19 to people who are clearly medically fragile.

You’re far from the first disabled person I’ve heard this happening to during this pandemic. Ableds need to FUCK OFF.

I’ve found that asking if a person needs help, and then backing off if they don’t wish for it is best practice. Many of the people I’ve met have been doing things on their own for some time, and are generally very self-sufficient. If they want/ need help, they will ask. If not, they politely decline. Respecting those wishes is how I treat them as people, not “disabilities”. So yeah, hands off unless you’re given permission or asked.

I’ve gone over this repeatedly: Being asked if you need help when you’re literally just getting on with your day is insulting and ableist. Unless you’re 100% sure that the person is struggling DON’T ASK. And if life has taught me anything it’s that ableds have no idea when we actually do and don’t need help - they default to assuming we need help because they assume we’re incompetent. Which is hella ableist.

Every time you’ve asked a person if they needed help and they said no was a time when you presumed a disabled person was incompetent simply because they were disabled. Probably a good percentage of the times they accepted help, too, because it’s often easier to just let the damn ableist do the damn thing instead of dealing with another insulted ableist. Every single time you did this you were being ableist, and you annoyed and insulted a disabled person and made their day that much worse. You’ve been committing microaggressions against disabled people. Congratulations.

Please just leave disabled people the hell alone. We got there by ourselves. We’ll get home by ourselves. We don’t need your help.

–

based on these passages from the odyssey and the aeneid (and i think it might have happened in the iliad too, though i can’t remember where):

athena and aphrodite know EXACTLY what matters and that is HEROIC BIMBOFICATION!

On the one hand, this is hilarious.

On the other, there’s actually a very reasonable explanation for this: Beauty was specifically believed to be a sign of godly approval in Classical Greece.

On the gripping hand, this ties into my favourite bit of Greek history: “Do these look like the tits of a heritic?”

next time someone talks about welfare fraud, remember that if you’re homeless you’re not supposed to have food stamps and if you lose your home and don’t report it to DSHS so they can take away your food stamps that’s welfare fraud

when i was on ABD (aged, blind, and disabled benefits – the only cash aid available to disabled people while we’re applying for SSI, a monthly $197) literally all money you get can be deducted from these benefits. this means that if someone sees you digging through the trash for food and gives you $20 the government will only pay you $177 that month. if you don’t report that $20 it’s welfare fraud

astute readers might realise that there’s no way anyone in the country can be expected to live off of $197 a month, and that that would have to be supplemented by another source of income. and if that money is going to disappear as soon as that other source of income hits $197, it might as well not exist. you’re right!

when i was on ABD i had a patreon running that brought in a steady $13 a month. the person in charge of my case rounded up the amount of money i was getting to $15. i was penalised by $15 for making $13.

This is how the government keeps disabled people homeless. We aren’t seen as productive and profitable to society, so we’re slowly weeded our and killed this way. Our country is and has been enacting nothing short of a genocide on disabled people.

why are there so many posts about asexuals being immune to sirens. people. sirens don’t lure you in with sex (necessarily). they sing about whatever it is that you want most. they could sing about mothman or cinnamon toast crunch and guess what then your asexual pirate is fucking dead

this is the only kind of ace discourse i ever want to see on my dash. the only kind. ever again. good job

Do you think the sirens would be grateful that they finally get some variety? 

“Oh my god we can finally just sing about pasta thank the fucking gods.” 

I’m not asexual but I’m fairly certain sirens would do a far better job luring me into the depths with a song about pasta rather than sex…

I mean. 

“WHAT THE FUCK STAY AWAY FROM THE ROCKS.”

“FUCKER THEY SAID THEY HAVE FETTUCCINE CARBONARA AND HOT GARLIC BREAD OVER THERE HANG ON BITCH.” 

This is true; Odysseus heard them promising him knowledge of the future.  So the next time you see artwork like this:

Remember those sultry naked chicks are saying “We’ll tell you the winning lotto numbers.”

Them: “We have unlimited wifi at incredible speeds~” Me: *diving headfirst into the water*

This post is a blessing

Congratulations! Odysseus! You’ve been selected as a winner for the free $1000 Amazon Gift Card, Apple iPhone X 256G or Samsung Galaxy S8! Claim your prize now!

Oh my god sirens were literally scam websites

Oh my god they were phishing

You know what? This actually isn’t funny at all because this really does happen. Baby boomers can’t afford to retire; that’s a big part of why millennials can’t find jobs in their fields. And if they lose their jobs (which can mean a variety of things, including their companies finding an excuse to fire them so they don’t have to pay anything for their retirement, which happened to my uncle and 5 people he worked with over one year), they aren’t as desirable because they’re retirement-age. The world has changed a lot since they got jobs they thought were supposed to be secure, and now their old strategies that used to work for finding a job don’t work anymore and they don’t know what does work. So a lot are desperate; I recently talked to a woman who had to be in at least her mid-60s who was begging on a street corner because she was replaced by a younger person and lost her job of 18 years, and it’s not the first time I’ve heard a story like that. A lot of people who were never rich to begin with lost a lot in the 2008 financial crisis and never fully recovered. Baby boomers didn’t all just magically become financially secure as they got older.

This generation war bullshit is 100% manufactured to keep our anger misdirected. It’s not baby boomers screwing over millennials. It’s rich capitalists of every living generation screwing over baby boomers, their parents, gen x-ers, millennials, and gen z-ers all at once and all in different ways. And if we collectively realize that we’re not enemies and that we actually have a common cause with common enemies, it’ll be really bad for the people doing this to us, which is why they’re pushing the generation war thing so hard.

Let queer Autistic people define their queerness however they want

I do think aesthetics are important to religion unironically tho. I think creating an atmosphere where people can Feel God is important. It doesn't have to be grandiose or ostentatious, it can be an intentionally very simple unadorned room, or any number of things, but like idk i dont get that from a lot of modern churches. It's like heres a terrible warehouse and you go in it looks like a hotel conference room fake flowers and all. Soulless and uninspiring

Everybody STAND BACK! I have an ART DEGREE and a love of RELIGIOUS ART the borders on a FETISH!

I can explain this why LDS Chapels look the way they do!

Let’s start with the boring stuff: practicality.

Catholic cathedrals look relay nice and fancy because they were able to put oodles of cash and literal generations of work into the building because, well, they’re the Catholic Church. They’ve got time and money. 

Mormonism on the other hand, is much smaller, younger, and started out being very broke. The early Saints could scrounge together enough cash and man power to put together a Temple, but to do that for every meeting house was just impractical. Plus most early converts came from an American Protestant background where meetings were usually held in tents, homes, or multipurpose “Meeting houses” (That’s why Mormons tend to call them that instead of chapels, churches, sanctuaries, etc.). So they were used to less ornate multi-use worship spaces. The financial troubles of the early church have left lingering marks on the modern church, making them VERY concerned about not overspending. 

All the chapels look the same because it’s cheaper to have a handful of standard designs than it is to keep designing new ones.

So LDS chapels are the way they are because 1) We started doing it like that 2) there’s been no need to stop and 3) it’s cheaper

BUT LET”S TALK ABOUT ART!

As I see it, Mormon architecture theory was heavily influenced by the philosophies of two art movement. Temples architecture was influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement that lasted from approx. 1880 to 1920. Meeting houses were influenced by the Minimalist Movement of the 1960s.

First, the Arts and Crafts Movement isn’t what it sounds like. It was a response to the industrial revolution, which was killing the market for traditional hand crafted materials. Craftsmen and artisans couldn’t keep up with massed produced goods, so instead they went all in on quality, which the factories could not reliably match. There was a focus on not only using the best materials, but also in showing the skill of the craftsman. That philosophy of high-quality material and high quality craftsmanship has clear appeal to Mormon Temples. No matter what weird hodgepodge of styles you get in a temple (we do like to mix and match when it comes to temples) they all will focus on high quality materials and expert craftsmanship.

BUT WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT TEMPLES, WE’RE TALKING ABOUT OUR BEST WESTERN MEETING HOUSES!

So, meetinghouses are very minimalist in design. Not a lot of flair, maybe some art deco in the lighting, but only as a treat, if you’re good. 

But why minimalism? Minimalism in visual art is all about exposing the beauty of the materials. Want to make a minimalist piece? Grab a canvas, paint it all one color, and admire how the paint looks on the canvas. Look at the way the textures of the paint and canvas interact. Minimalism is about appreciating the beauty of parts more that the entire thing. 

Now if we take that theory into the wonderful world of theology we start to understand the appeal. Mormonism teaches that you have two major parts to you; a body and a spirit. Paint and a canvas. In our teachings we point out that both of these parts are good. Bodies are necessary and desirable and our spirits are what make us who we are. Both deserve to be examined and appreciated on their own. Just like in minimalism, the point is to see the beauty of the parts.

Also, Mormonism is a very introspective religion (though the culture may not always follow suit). Most of our holiest moments are meant to happen quietly and internally. The sacrament, The Celestial Room of the Temple. Both of these are times to be still and examine the parts that make up you. The Godly parts, the not-so-Godly parts. 

Our chapels are designed to minimize distractions so that we can be still and listen to God and ourselves. And, if you look closely, they’re designed to tell you that you’re made up of good things.

I get that but like as someone with an art degree why so they still have to be so boring? Like why the weird walls that hurt your hands? Why do the couches look like something from a grandma's parlor and are about as comfy as sitting on the ground? Why are the pews so sterile to the point of pain for even non disabled members? Why are there not different kinds of woods used but rather the exact same across meeting houses?

I mean, get expense is a factor but is there not a way to make these places more visually appealing and comfier to exist within? Like I can't afford a couch right now. I get the need to punch pennies. Genuinely. But is there really no better way to craft these spaces? There can be holiness in art and there is a special kind of holiness when beauty exists in religious spaces. I'm not out here saying we should Catholic the place up with stained glass in every window or anything. But why can't we have tasteful red curtains for windows? Or other colors? Why can't there be a visual cohesion that is BOTH inexpensive AS WELL AS pleasing?

Like there has GOT to be a way to do minimalism without the harsh, grating starkness that's in these spaces currently

it’s just one of those croissant days

we love a recovery

Marine life specialists noticed a spotted eagle ray mother was having trouble and helped her deliver two baby rays 

(Source)

They’re so cute! Such

Biblical literalism erased 2000 years worth of thought and discussion around God and it shows

THE SOLUTION TO THE OPIATE CRISIS IS MOTHERFUCKING NOT TO MAKE OPIATES MORE ILLEGAL OR HARDER TO GET

IT JUST FUCKING ISN’T!!!!!!!!!

How about stop the kick backs doctors get for prescribing them? Obviously the fact that they’re so readily available is an issue, but there are people that honestly need them for their pain. Are there long term alternatives? Yes, are they affordable in the United States? Probably not.

Actually, the problem is not that they’re so readily available. They’re selectively readily available.

What started this all was really  OxyContin’s 12-hour dosing problem: Purdue lied about how long it’s effective for. The drug only lasts 8 hours for most people. If someone gets a month of Oxy, and takes a pill every time the last one wore off, they run out of pills on Day 21. And Purdue sued doctors for saying, “Okay, if you need three a day instead of two, I’ll just give you 90 for the month instead of 60.”

Also, the instant a doctor suspects their patient has become addicted to the drugs, they have to cut them off cold turkey. If someone just wants the drugs too much–say, they come in and say, “I’ve run out of those painkillers you gave me, they worked great but I went through them too fast”–a doctor can be legally prosecuted for writing them a scrip, because Drug Addicts Don’t Deserve Health Care.

Opiate withdrawal is quite literally hell. It is UNBELIEVABLY painful. When people are ALREADY in pain, and then go through the ACTUAL HELL of withdrawal, they get two choices:

1. Suffer

2. Buy black-market opiates, which are probably unevenly-diluted fentanyl or carfentanil, and risk dying of an overdose.

Option 3, which is missing: THE DOCTOR JUST GIVES THEM AN EXTRA PILL A FUCKING DAY.

Option 4: The doctor gives them a different, lesser opioid, and helps slowly wean them off opioids. (That whole “pharma companies that caused this problem are now selling drugs to solve it”? Literally the least part of my worries. Buprenorphine saves lives and should have been routinely available to begin with.)

Option 4: We just accept that people who are addicted deserve safe, legal drugs, supportive environments, and shouldn’t be treated like fucking criminals, and if we do that they’ll either live okay lives or actually take themselves off the drug when they’re ready to.

Also addicts that are just addicts without chronic pain still deserve to be treated like humans too

Yes! Although honestly longterm addicts overwhelmingly have brain conditions rooted in early childhood toxic stress and trauma that means their brains basically aren’t able to self-soothe and self-regulate (abilities that drug use further atrophies), so they’re constantly marinating in the neurotransmitters that communicate “pain”. Even when nothing’s “physically wrong” with them.

Now, there are different KINDS of drugs that are better or worse for helping them live happy lives—opioids have some massive drawbacks so it might be better for their longterm health to find something different—but it’s not as though addicts without Chronic Pain™️ aren’t actually in chronic pain or don’t have conditions that non-negotiably need treatment.

So it’s all kind of uh… yeah. We need to stop criminalizing addiction and treat addicts like human beings and get them the healthcare they need, which ISN’T a 12-step group and Finding Jesus and “being clean.” We need it desperately.

Yeah @star-anise touches on an important note that is not talked about much - our model for addiction is completely wrong. The reason we don’t correct it is because our opioid epidemic is essentially an indictment of our entire system. Trauma that often results in addiction is baked into our society. The opioid epidemic is directly the result of capitalism, and it will continue to take lives until capitalism is abolished and replaced with a system that prioritizes human dignity and not greed.

Eden @dedmemehehe and I made a deal that for every note this post gets, they will stay alive another day. Please help them realize that people love she care about them.

oh my gods

that’s my partner

i’m a horrible partner

please help me help my partner

Y’all. I have 59 followers. Each and every one of you better reblog and like this. Please.

I will stay up until this gets 730 notes. 730 days is a lot of time. So much can happen in that time. Hopefully something happens in that time to help them realise how worth it they are. How important and special they are. Please help me get this more notes.

It’s past 730 notes. That’s 2 years. That’s a lot of time. I hope it’s enough. Even so, I really hope that when I check this post in the morning, it’s well past 1,000. Please.

If you scroll past this and don't reblog it i will hunt y'all down

Me too. Honestly. Please please please reblog and like this as much as you can. Comment until Tumblr tells you to stop. Make this get so many notes, it breaks the notes. Please. I’m begging y’all. And @dedmemehehe, you are so so so important. Please stay alive. You’re 100% worth it. I promise you. I may not know you, but you’re worth it. You’re so worth it.

Come on people! Keep reblogging!!!

Please! It’s so close to 1,000! Please keep reblogging!

We are so fucking close come on!!!

923. So. So. So. Close. Please. I’m begging y’all.

1,461 is the new goal, y’all. That’s 4 years. And we’re so so so close. Please. Reblog. Like. Comment till Tumblr tells you to stop.

We're so close people, REBLOG

Tumblr won’t let me like any more. But we’re almost there. Come one.

I meant comment. I’d’ve just edited it, but getting this more notes is worth the extra reblog

Do i really need to say more? Do i really need to say more??

HEY. YOU. MAYBE HELP OUT A BIT AND REBLOG?