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@batpupboy

Branok~25~xe/bat/hy pronouns~boyliminal/nonbinary~polyamorous demiromantic queer~

I want everybody who’s calling Ken a Trophy Husband to know that he’s actually a Trophy Boyfriend, because when Ruth Handler invented Ken in the 1960s, she was adamant that he would never marry her and instead be her “handsome steady”, so that Barbie remained a figure of independence for the little girls and was never put in the position of housewife.

Her house is hers. She bought it and furnished it with money she made in her own job. In STEM, in politics, in healthcare, in fashion, in academy, in customer service. Her credit card is in her name (women in the US couldn’t have their own regardless of marital status until 1974). And it’s all pink and fashionable because femininity and badassness aren’t mutually exclusive. No matter who you are, you can be anything.

That’s why Barbie’s slogan is “you can be anything”. Teaching these ideals to little girls is why Barbie was created. Empowering women and empowering femininity is the original meaning of the Barbie doll. It’s not that you have to be all this to be a woman, but if you are all or some of this, you too are awesome.

And somehow pop culture deliberately changed that narrative. Sexualised, bimbofied, and villainised her, when she actually isn’t responsible for the impossible beauty standards — people are, she’s just a stylised, not-to-scale toy like most others.

Men are frothing because he’s just Ken and I guess they were expecting her to be just Barbie, but that’s exactly what Ken is. Canonically. A badass woman’s himbo boyfriend.

This movie has the potential to change the way we collectively see Barbie radically into what Ruth Handler’s intended, I’m so very excited

It’s also important that while her physical proportions have been subject to a lot of criticism for being unrealistic (and they are), there’s a reason she has an exaggeratedly hourglass figure. Ruth Handler wanted to make it explicitly clear that this was an adult woman. Not a baby doll or any kind of doll that encouraged a little girl to pretend to be its mother. The whole reason she created Barbie was because her daughter only had baby dolls and no adult dolls that would let her pretend to be something other than a mother or maybe babysitter.

Investors were hesitant to back a doll that had boobs. Because a doll having boobs might be construed as being sexual! But Ruth was like “women have boobs, there’s nothing wrong with boobs, fuck off with your combo body-and-slut-shaming.” (Note that later in her life, Ruth Handler also invented fake breasts for women who’d undergone a mastectomy due to breast cancer - obviously there are problems with equating boobs with womanhood, but in a time when women were largely supposed to have them & be sexy with them BUT simultaneously be ashamed to have them, she saw them as an empowering symbol of femininity.)

“For 60 years, doctors and researchers have known two things that could have improved, or even saved, millions of lives. The first is that diets do not work. Not just paleo or Atkins or Weight Watchers or Goop, but all diets. Since 1959, research has shown that 95 to 98 percent of attempts to lose weight fail and that two-thirds of dieters gain back more than they lost. The reasons are biological and irreversible. As early as 1969, research showed that losing just 3 percent of your body weight resulted in a 17 percent slowdown in your metabolism—a body-wide starvation response that blasts you with hunger hormones and drops your internal temperature until you rise back to your highest weight. Keeping weight off means fighting your body’s energy-regulation system and battling hunger all day, every day, for the rest of your life.
The second big lesson the medical establishment has learned and rejected over and over again is that weight and health are not perfect synonyms. Yes, nearly every population-level study finds that fat people have worse cardiovascular health than thin people. But individuals are not averages: Studies have found that anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of people classified as obese are metabolically healthy. They show no signs of elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance or high cholesterol. Meanwhile, about a quarter of non-overweight people are what epidemiologists call “the lean unhealthy.” A 2016 study that followed participants for an average of 19 years found that unfit skinny people were twice as likely to get diabetes as fit fat people.”

A surprising article to find on the Huffington post. I think, especially towards the end, there’s still a saturation of healthism and diet talk (just of the “clean eating” variety), but the information about weight discrimination is absolutely on point, especially within the medical field ignoring decades of research.

Not only do we know that weight loss isn’t sustainable or possible, we also know that weight discrimination kills, in a myriad of ways. If you actually care about “health” then start unlearning your weight bias NOW and realize that fat people are just people who are a different shape.

And this article doesn’t even touch on “the obesity paradox”(the fact that fat people survive heart attacks and injuries BETTER THAN thin people) or the fact that dieting, especially “yo-yo dieting,” is a better predictor for heart disease than weight, and that many of the fat people who have cardiovascular diseases have a long history of dieting that (understandably) didn’t work.

encouraged to rb but fatphobes will just be blocked.

beeftea78-deactivated20200113

Smash that mf reblog button if you stoically ignore all labelled washing instructions and everything your mama ever told you about laundry and just send those bastards hurgling around in an overfilled tub to meet either death or glory

Something I learned from a costume designer: if an item can be washed multiple ways the designer is only legally obligated to put one of the ways on the tag, but if there’s only one way to wash that item they have to put Only on the instructions

If the tag says “Dry Clean” it’s safe to machine wash but the designer thinks it looks better if you get it dry cleaned 

But if it says “Dry Clean Only” you will destroy it if you wash it any other way

Reblogging for that last bit which this 37 yr old adult did not lnowy

Other pro laundry tip: a good way to get out funky smell (like for nasty towels or workout/manual labor clothes) is to put some white vinegar in the bleach spot in your washer.

I'm sorry you had to bottle up all your feelings inside in order to function. I'm sorry that's what you had to do to survive in a time where stopping to take the time to feel and express them would have had severe consequences.

I'm proud of you for making it though that time, but I need you to stop suppressing your feelings now that you're here.

Your feelings are important. They are not bad. They are not here to hurt you. They're here to tell you what you're experiencing, and you need them. So take them out of their boxes, please. Use them.

......... different fantasy races should be impacted differently by each other's alcohol

no more if this "fine elvin wine" shit, I am going to personally write a fantasy setting in which every human knows that elf booze tastes and feels like fantasy la croix. there's barely even a flavor, and you'd need to drink a few to even get tipsy.

meanwhile, every human with a lick of common sense knows that you need to plan accordingly if you're going to be drinking dwarven liquor, because it hits you hard and fast and you'll lose feeling in your legs faster than you thought was physically possible. the hangovers are the stuff of legend.

the flip side is that elves are an entire race of (comparative) lightweights, and a whole gaggle of teenange elves can get piss drunk passing around one bottle of fruity human wine

I think there's some compatability among drinks brewed by reptilian races (dragonborn, lizardfolk, tortles, kobolds, etc) although you run into similar translation issues as mammalians, but there is absolutely no crossover. like if a drsgonborn and a dwarf in a (very cosmopolitan) tavern were to switch drinks it would be a nonstarter.

"this is basically just a capri sun," the dragonborn says, disappointed.

"cool, I'm pretty sure I just drank actual paint thinner," the dwarf says. "get me to a hospital."

humans and halflings are probably the most compatible drinkers of any two races, although halflings find most human wines, beers, ciders, etc, a little too dry and bland for their liking. halfling alternatives are very sweet, which makes them a huge hit among the 'I like alcohol but I don't want it to taste like alcohol' crowd

I think it would be very funny if being drunk was like... a relatively new cultural development for gnomes? there’s just something about their wacky gnomish constitution that prevented them coming by it naturally (traditionally they’re more into a variety of mushrooms and other recreational plants) but once they started mingling more with more alcohol-happy races they learned VERY quickly and started opening, basically, turbo-breweries that are basically one part distillery and one part wizard tower. VERY popular job for young alchemists trying to make some good money, and the reason why gnomes are known (among other things) for operating the craziest night clubs

The article says that the guidelines have been updated. Instead of asking if you’re a man that’s had sex with another man in the past 3 months it asks everyone regardless of gender if they’ve had anal sex with a new partner or if they’ve had anal sex with multiple partners in the past 3 months.

This both opens up blood donation to msm in exclusive relationships or who don’t have anal sex and more accurately identifies hiv risk from people who aren’t msm. This is exactly the sort of guidelines we’ve been fighting for for years. This is a major win for both gay rights and blood donation in the US. Now a bunch of people who couldn’t donate before can donate now.

URGENT: Congress about to pass a mass censorship and surveillance bill under the guise of "protecting children"

May 13 2023

The Senate has been in a "do something!" mode regarding children's online safety. They're using this as an excuse to push for widespread internet censorship and surveillance. I already spoke about the EARN IT Act, which has a slimmer chance of passing with widespread opposition and a few senators saying they won't vote for it. The real threat is actually KOSA (s.1409), the Kid's Online Safety Act. It does two primary things:

First, KOSA pressures platforms to install filters that would wipe the net of anything deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This means instructing platforms to censor. We saw how these filters impacted websites firsthand with tumblr in 2018, with not only blocking all adult content but also sfw queer content such as suicide hotlines, art archives, wiping out entire blogs because they had queer fandom related posts, etc. Places that already use content filters have restricted important information about suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support groups. KOSA would spread this kind of censorship to every corner of the internet. And who gets to decide what is and isn't harmful for minors? Oh don't worry, just every single state attorney general and the FTC, which is appointed by the president. You know, the same attorney generals that just banned gender-affirming healthcare under the guise that it "ruins mental health" of minors. This is why the Heritage Foundation was one of the first to sponsor the bill because they can use it to censor trans content, and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is it's co-author.

Second, KOSA would ramp up the online surveillance of all internet users by forcing websites to use age verification and parental monitoring tools. Yup, that's right. Now every single person who wants to access the internet has to upload their govt ID online to third party apps that get hacked all the time. You queer in a red state? You undocumented? You an activist? Have fun getting all your online activity and metadata attached to your govt ID.  

Over 90+ human and LGBT rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and updates to the 2023 version won’t and can’t address the big problems with the bill. This bill has MASSIVE bipartisan support, and the authors Blumenthal and Blackburn (yes, that Blumenthal that's pushing the EARN IT Act, and who also sponsored the RESTRICT Act and SOPA/PIPA if you remember) are using the tragedy of mothers who lost their kids to online harassment and young adults who've been traumatized online to lobby for it, and got Dove the company to use a bunch of influencers to push for this under the guise it prevents eating disorders...I wish I was lying. There are already 30 co-sponsors.

HOW TO FIGHT KOSA
  1. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES & THE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

Opposition is getting drowned, and these upcoming weeks will be heavy for lobbying and they're using young people to do it. We NEED to show these senators that young people are actually opposed to this and don't want it.

2. Sign these petitions

  1. Open Letter Against KOSA
  2. Petition 1
  3. Petition 2
  4. Petition 3
  5. Petition 4
  6. Resistbot: Text PHJDYH to 50409

3. Spread the word.

The opposition is getting absolutely drowned online. Dove has nearly 100k signatures to push for KOSA. Influencers on tiktok are pushing for this without ever having read the bill. Fucking Lizzo is sponsoring it. If you have twitter, reddit, tiktok, are in any community, SPREAD THE WORD, PLEASE.

Here is a linktree with all the above petitions for easy shargin: Link to linktree

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MCR’s Ski Masks at the NME awards explained:

(credit for the gif: @rubbish78 )

A Master Post Because I couldn’t find one! Lmk if I missed anything :)

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So way back in 2010, the British magazine NME (New Music Express) published a multi-page spread about the band. In that article, “journalist” Luke Lewis wrote:

Both men are rail-thin something Way attributes to not eating, rather than exercise, which he hates. For the new albume he wanted to look staving and on-the-run, though he actually looks healthy, certainly in comparison with his Xanax and cocaine days pre-Black Parade, when he ballooned to 200 pounds and got so blitzed his trousers fell down onstage. Back then, unkind souls dubbed him the emo Meat Loaf, such was his shambolic demeanour. Now he looks more like Christina Ricci. In the background lurks guitarist Ray Toro the archetypal heavy metal nerd, with corkscrew hair and a wheedling voice. He doesnt look starving and on-the-run: when he takes off his Randy Rhodes, I notice doughy love handles spilling over his belt.

(Here’s a link to the scanned article)

Ray responded on his Twitter:

MCR was set to preform at the NME music awards a few months later, in February of 2011. At that show, they preformed in ski masks.

(credit for the gif: @rubbish78 )

When Frank and Gerard were asked about why they did so, in an interview, Frank explained:

“[it’s] about the music, not the messengers, you know?”

(at about 3:20)

My Chemical Romance received the award for “Best Music Video” that night, and when present with the award Gerard said this in his speech:

“Don’t ever let the media tell you what your body is supposed to look like. You’re beautiful the way you are. Stay beautiful[…]”

(at about 8:30)

I feel like a good shorthand for a lot of economics arguments is "if you want people to work minimum wage jobs in your city, you need to allow minimum wage apartments for them to live in."

"These jobs are just for teenagers on the weekends." Okay, so you'll use minimum wage services only on the weekends and after school. No McDonald's or Starbucks on your lunch break.

"They can get a roommate." For a one bedroom? A roommate for a one bedroom? Or a studio? Do you have a roommate to get a middle-wage apartment for your middle-wage job? No? Why should they?

"They can live farther from city center and just commute." Are there ways for them to commute that don't equate to that rent? Living in an outer borough might work in NYC, where public transport is a flat rate, but a city in Texas requires a car. Does the money saved in rent equal the money spent on the car loan, the insurance, the gas? Remember, if you want people to take the bus or a bike, the bus needs to be reliable and the bike lanes survivable.

If you want minimum wage workers to be around for you to rely on, then those minimum wage workers need a place to stay.

You either raise the minimum wage, or you drop the rent. There's only so long you can keep rents high and wages low before your workforce leaves for cheaper pastures.

"Nobody wants to work anymore" doesn't hold water if the reason nobody applies is because the commute is impossible at the wage you provide.

Not queer as in "queer is not a slur" but queer as in "I do not give a fuck if its a slur, you don't get to censor my identity regardless". Queer as in "I HOPE my identity upsets you". Queer as in "my identity is not only a slur but a threat"

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queer as in "every word we have used to describe ourselves has been turned around and used against us. so no, i will not surrender another word to those who wish to shame us out of existence."

I do think it’s unfortunate that people (europeans) automatically assume that “american” style versions of foods are immediately the most bastardized version done purposefully out of lack of culture, when the reality a lot of times it’s rooted in a response of millions of poor immigrants stepping foot in a foreign land attempting to recreate beloved recipes with what few ingredients were available and affordable

take something like soul food, which is often criticized for being “unhealthy” and “just fried food”. soul food stems from slavery in america. enslaved workers were given a very limited ration, they were given very specific parts of animals and vegetables, and they often didn’t have a lot of time to cook. but they also needed to consume as many calories as possible for the long days of work. hence frying / using anything available to create fast high calorie meals. while there was undoubtedly an african influence on the dishes, there was also a native american influence on soul food (use of maize). later, post slavery, impoverished southerners continued this type of cooking, though it would branch off into sub genres like cajun

me: american cuisine is influenced by immigrants and poverty, with a lot of history behind it

you:

actually please tell me more about how the only thing enslaved africans contributed to american food culture was “spice” and couldn’t possible have managed to fry food. or how US food culture (which is literally built off the backs of immigrants from dozens of countries) is bad because a lot of recipes come from poverty stricken individuals

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are you good?

ID: a digital drawing of a black dog in sketchy pencil. its leaping forward, held back by a leash, its teeth bared, blood dripping from its jaws and splashing underfoot. in a serif font in all caps it reads "good boys maul transphobes". end ID

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this print is gonna be available on my Etsy in an hour!!!

it's not even cringe; it's just personal and unpolished and you've been taught to flinch away from vulnerability which doesn't mock itself

everyone is all like "why does no one write love letters anymore" when the simple answer to that is, that vulerability and the unapologetic and unironic pouring out of ones emotions is almost always ridiculed in some way so

Full stop, I hate how disabled people are ripped off when it comes to buying basic items. Why the fuck is an electric wheelchair $4000, ableds can buy a used car cheaper than that. Ableds get everything catered to them yet I’m trying to get a new wheelchair and can’t afford it. That’s my fucking legs. This also applies to things that disabled people want, like I shouldn’t have to pay $1000 for an adapted guitar. You’re ripping one of the poorest population in the world.

There needs to be a cap on how much vendors can charge for equipment rentals and items that are needed or wanted by disabled people but y’all not ready to talk about that.

Ableds, stop monopolizing off disabled people. (Ableds can reblog this - actually it’s encouraged - but don’t comment!)

dont get me wrong this is #mood but just try eating a piece of bread with salt. please, seriously. ok? at least a tiny bit. salt helps with nausea, bread calms the stomach acid. if you really can’t face eating anything, just lick some salt like a damn elk, then wait and see if you can manage the bread. make some broth if you’re into that kind of thing. no spices, yes salt. if you’re feeling too weak and shaky to do much, just have a cup of tea with sugar (energy) and lemon (again, good against nausea). nibble on the lemon first, it will feel good, but don’t overdo - citric acid on an empty stomach is a majorly bad idea. take care of yourself, you’re the only you we’ve got

You’re the only you we’ve got”

“just lick some salt like a damn elk” is the new “touch grass”