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better-name

@better-name

I changed the blog title to a... better name. Just stuff I like, no order or theme

ngl the "im white so i dont talk abt any characters' race ever bc im afraid of accidentally saying something racist" approach to fandom is like. very weak. imo.

like first of all: i get that "i dont incorporate race into my media analysis because i'm afraid of messing up" comes from a different place than "i don't incorporate race into my media analysis because I Don't See Race 😊 there is only The Human Race." but it has the same functional effect, right? that effect being that your analysis of [INSERT MEDIA HERE] ignores the very real way that race impacts people.

second of all: it feels kinda lazy! like ur saying "i dont know enough abt race to feel comfortable commenting on how race affects this show and i dont care enough to learn." the only way to become more comfortable discussing race is to actually practice discussing race. but when i see people saying this it feels like they're saying "i'm white, which means i don't know how to talk about race, and i don't have to know how to talk about race, and i don't ever have to know how to talk about race, so i'm choosing to never learn how to talk about race."

third of all: just because you don't openly talk about race doesn't mean you're any less likely to accidentally say or do something racist. implicit biases run deep, y'all. it's probably already there in your interpretation of the show. but the "i don't want to accidentally say something racist" implies that you are positive that your interpretation of the show isn't racist. and i'm not saying you're wrong. but i'm saying that if a person of color tells you that something you said about [INSERT MEDIA HERE] was racist, you better be prepared to actually listen and not just brush them off because "i can't be racist! i purposefully never talk about race just to make sure i'm not racist!"

which brings me to my final point: if you do accidentally say something racist... literally just apologize. if someone says you've been doing something racist, apologize and stop doing that thing. it's literally not that hard. i've done it. i've seen other people do it. "i'm scared of being called racist!" is such a weak excuse im tired of it. getting called racist is not the end of the fucking world. calm the fuck down and grow a spine. jesus.

and yeah sometimes you’ll apologize for saying or doing something racist and people won’t accept the apology and they won’t forgive you.

that’s also fine. people are allowed to not forgive you. and you’re allowed to move on and try to do better without agonizing over the people who dislike you, even if they have a good reason for not liking you. it takes some maturity yeah but like it’s possible to do.

I remember someone saying "mad scientists in fiction aren't scientists because there's never a control group"

I think if you've created an elixir that turns people into goat men you have sort have gone past the need for a control group. The control group is not going to placebo themselves into goat men. You can probably not run the control group, and safely assume that none of them would have turned into goat men. That said, having a control group for that would make the mad scientist seem extra crazy and be really really funny, especially if he was carefully testing them for goat like features from the dyed water they drank instead of the elixir

[ image description: two sets of screenshotted tags in different colours ]

#the real question is why arent any of them running it double blind #what if those guys are just turning into goatmen bc they know the mad scientists reeeeaaaaallly want them to

#it's also a question of sample size #if you turn one person into a goatman you might THINK you have an elixir that turns someone into a goatman #but make that a 75 person trial and suddenly you realize it's an elixir that turns you into your ideal body #and that one person was just a guy with a fursona and a dream

Everyone absolutely SHOULD get at least one full month off of school/work/whatever and multiple smaller breaks each year, I am not arguing that point.

But the reason kids (in many cultures) get the summer off from school is not because they need a vacation from learning. It's because kids were expected to help with harvests and other homestead-management tasks that peak during the summer, and would be pulled from classes en masse so it just made logistical sense to make it official so that everyone could have equal access to the material taught.

The multiple breaks throughout the year were mostly hard-won concessions to teacher's unions so that the teachers have a chance to prepare lessons and update their own knowledge base. Some of the multiple breaks throughout the year are also purely operational considerations when the local governments will only fund so many hours per year (this happened in my area when the ultra-conservative government slashed funding for teachers and suddenly the kids got half a dozen more PD days sprinkled throughout the year)

The Scooby-Doo Project is a Halloween special that aired in commercial segments during Cartoon Network's Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! marathon on October 31, 1999.

Each "commercial" was a mix of live action handheld footage with traditional hand drawn animations which parodied its source material, The Blair Witch Project (1999), very well. You can watch the 20 min youtube video (linked above) which pieces all of the segments together.

I cannot put into words how much I Fucking Loathe the fact that when you search something on youtube now it will randomly intersperse blocks of "people also watched" and "for you" into the results. That's not what I searched for, youtube. I typed in a search query because I wanted to see search results, not random unrelated garbage you have placed in my way apparently to either inconvenience me or force me to scroll further for actual results. I despise your wretched little games and every time I see it I can only instantly close the tab as I am overcome with the urge to burn something down.

"I despise your wretched little games" perfectly conveys how I feel about the entire algorithm/attention economy

They also refuse to actually show the parameters you searched for. If you sort by “upload date,” the first few videos might be more recent ones by upload date, but anything past that you’ll find a video that was uploaded five years ago, then five months ago, then three years ago, etc, which—NO! That’s NOT WHAT I ASKED FOR!! PUT THEM IN ORDER!!!

Also sometimes the “people also watched” bullcrap will not only be entirely unrelated, it will also be videos with violent, sometimes outright triggering thumbnails. I’ve gotten some AWFUL unrelated video thumbnails just when searching for video game music videos.

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how fucking crazy will the posting be the day jk rowling dies

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im holding out for her to die of like, racism poisoning or something in 2023

Like to charge, reblog to cast

it’s funny to me how the logic behind tumblr’s new layout changes are to coddle potential new users, to make them feel more comfortable by giving them a layout that’s more familiar to navigate

…..by making the CURRENT users feel LESS comfortable by giving them a layout that’s LESS familiar to navigate.

they’re prioritizing a hypothetical scenario over their established, existing userbase, some of which (like me) who have been here for 10+ years

lol you're only learning japanese because you like anime, you're only interested in history because you like the anime girl king king arthur series, you're only broadening your horizons and becoming a more learned and fulfilled person because your sincere enjoyment of something not considered intellectual enough to be worthy of recognition provided you with a small window into a few of the many wonders of culture and knowledge the world has to offer and you want to obtain a deeper understanding of them

still so fucking weird to go from real life, where a cis man being flamboyant/effeminate/camp is judged like 70+% by how he speaks and carries himself, to online queer communities, which often seem to have no concept of male gender non-conformity that doesn’t involve wearing a skirt

i promise you, a man can be fem to the point of being in danger while wearing literally exactly the same thing as a hypermasculine guy. a boring basic black suit. a t shirt and jeans. a UNIFORM. gender conformity is not only about what you wear

None of you have watched that heartbreaking scene in The Birdcage where Albert gives up wearing everything he likes to try and blend in for their son’s conservative prospective in-laws and is so awkward and uncomfortable that no one says much until finally he says, defeated, “I know what you’re thinking - dressed like this, I’m even more obvious, aren’t I?” and it shows.

Here, have your queer heart broken:

This is what I’m talking about. This is still literally how it is in most places in the Midwest if you’re trying to “pass” for straight/cis/whatever.

I cannot begin to describe how hard I cried when I saw this scene the first time and how confused my conservative family was as to why I was crying.

It’s so funny how literally the way a man holds his wrists is an indication of femininity but also people think it’s all about makeup and clothing. But we’re also at a point that if you have a suit that is any color other than black, dark grey, or navy, it’s flamboyant.

Men’s sartorial stylings are so rigidly controlled it’s painful. Tim Gunn here is at the very absolute bleeding edge of “acceptably masculine” here for most cishet men, just for some noticible stripes, patterns, and purple, and that’s before he even moves. This is how restricted it is.

But Trixie Mattel (out of drag here) wearing standard masculine garb is could still be deemed unacceptably feminine for body language alone.

This is why we talk about “toxic masculinity” – the idea that any expression of emotion besides anger or even wearing colorful clothes is non-masculine and therefore restricted is horrifying. It sucks! Men should be allowed to express themselves outside of a tiny box of acceptable behavior, because they’re, y'know, people, and people have a wide range of expression in the way they like to look and move and act. I honestly feel like it’s gotten worse over the last couple decades, too. If you look at men’s fashions from the 70s and even into the 80s, there’s a lot of style choices that look pretty cringe to us, but…. you also see a lot more color and pattern in suits than you do now. I’m not sure when this started to shift, or if it’s tied in to the increasing lack of color in all consumer products, but it sucks.