Finally got some pictures of my Padme lake dress cosplay 😊 Photos by @readingbookswatchingfilms

Gaius’ hanami costume design notes.

There’s a certain type of white woman that hates Meghan Markle on principle.

TW for su*c*de mention.

I said in the previous post that they hate that Meghan illustrates that white femininity is not the gold standard that they have been taught that it is. And this, in my opinion, is exactly what their problem is. And this is why I have no patience or sympathy or kindness for these women. It’s not a new phenomenon. I’ve seen it before in fandoms. The way a significant group of white fangirls hated and still hate Iris West on The Flash because she’s Black and is the love interest of the cute, white main character guy. They go out of their way to ship him with any white girl he knows, because they can’t wrap their head around him choosing a Black woman over them. They need to feel like their whiteness automatically makes them more desirable than any Black woman. Even when they are gorgeous and smart and wonderful like Meghan Markle or Candace Patton.

That’s all I see from these white women. I see obvious and transparent jealousy that, if they couldn’t have Prince Harry, it wasn’t another white girl they could project themselves onto. It was a Black girl (and in many of the British white women’s cases, an AMERICAN Black girl.) And yes, I know Meghan Markle is biracial, but that hardly seems to matter to white people. They don’t see someone who is white with them. They see tainted blood. The tragic mulatto stereotype. All they see is a Black girl who dared to sink her grubby paws into the Prince Charming they were told they were owed their entire lives. All they see is a street hoochie who saw dollar signs and isn’t good enough. An uppity n*gress who doesn’t know her place. 

I see it in the venomous way they say she “wants attention” every time she does or says anything. If she touches her baby bump, or says “It’s a girl!” on TV. It doesn’t matter that it’s the daughter of a prince, one of the most famous princes in the world, and it would be huge news that he was having a daughter no matter who his wife was. To them, the tainted negro children might as well not even be Harry’s. They’re Meghan’s, and she’s somehow awful for daring to birth them or even be happy about it.

It’s in the way they call a millionaire actress a “gold digger”, or say nonsense things like “she was a washed up actress before she met him” (She was STARRING ON A CABLE TV SHOW, which is a good enough job for Jennifer Aniston, but when it’s Meghan Markle, it’s “washed up.”) 

They say things like this, because they can get the benefit of the doubt and claim they don’t hate her because she’s Black. Because if they say that, they’d show their true colors. But they do.

Because all in all, she’s done nothing wrong. All in all, she’s just a woman who married a prince. ANY woman on Earth, including Beyonce and Taylor Swift, would get a profile and position boost from marrying into the British Royal Family. Again, it’s THE MOST FAMOUS ROYAL FAMILY ON EARTH. There are other royals, but most of the world doesn’t even know many of the other royals, unless they’re from those countries or just happen to be interested in royalty in general. EVERYONE knows Harry and Will. 

Kate Middleton was a veritable nobody when she married Will.

Meghan Markle was at least a pretty successful actress with a following of her own. And SHE’S the gold digger? It’s thinly veiled racist language. It’s the image of the ghetto Black woman pumping out babies to trap a man. It’s the idea that a Black woman can’t be worth anything on her own so she chases a rich man.

I mean, I know Priyanka isn’t Black, but similar things were said about her when she married Nick, and she’s PRIYANKA CHOPRA. She was already a huge Bollywood star. And again, it was white women leading conversations like this, because again, they were faced with the reality that white femininity is not the gold standard. That a South Asian woman could get their favorite heartthrob and they couldn’t, nor did a cute white girl they could project themselves on.

DON’T GET ME STARTED ON THE “MEGHAN MADE KATE CRY” LIE! This is a prime example of the weaponization of white femininity to demonize Black people. Been going on for centuries and will continue to. Weaponizing tears is the white woman’s bread and butter, especially if it can be used to demonize a Black woman. “Oh, boo hoo, that brutish Black thing made sweet little fragile, porcelain white me cry!” And to find out it was the other way around and NOBODY in that family said anything and just let the “angry Black woman” take the heat? It’s sick. And it’s common. It happens all the time. Because white femininity is soft and fragile and innocent, and Black women are never afforded that.

Even light skinned, biracial Black women like Meghan Markle. White women still refuse to believe she even has feelings. Crazy old hags like Megyn Kelly straight up think she LIED in the interview about HOW SHE FELT, because white people can’t imagine a Black person having feelings! They think we all just make it up because we’re trying to make them look bad or something, or that we like pretending to be hurt by their racism simply to make them look bad. So they don’t have to feel remorse for the racist shit they do and say. For making a pregnant woman hate herself so much that she didn’t want to live. 

Like, we all know how bad hormones make people feel during pregnancy anyway. They can’t even believe that a pregnant woman who was being disparaged DAILY by the British tabloids … felt sadness or hopelessness because of it? 

Like, it really seems like white people think Black people have no feelings.

IDK, I’m still angry and hurt for her. And like, I’m so sick of white women only being feminists when it benefits them. I’m so sick of the absolute vitriol they have for Black women all the time. I HATE how they see us as beneath them, in every situation. 

I really think these racist hags thought Harry would pick one of them. And when he picked someone not white, they couldn’t take it. 

We have to stop letting white women hide behind this “I’m a woman, so I’m oppressed” shit, when they know exactly how to weaponize white supremacy to benefit themselves. And I don’t think Black women should have to be nice about it. White women need to get it to-fucking-gether and cut this shit out. Because it’s PERVASIVE, and like, when it’s a fictional character it’s one thing, but they literally drove this REAL, HUMAN WOMAN TO THE BRINK and they STILL refuse to stop. Inhumane cretins. 

THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT COMMENTING ON FIC

I’ve read all kinds of posts both from writers and readers lamenting about comments on fic. Authors are upset when they don’t get any, readers don’t know what kinds of comments to leave, etc. And it finally clicked in my brain why I think a lot of people don’t bother writing comments. 

And this is what it boils down to:

Writers do not want praise.  We just want to talk about our story. 

I can’t speak for everyone obviously - but I think the majority of writers don’t care so much for the “omg you’re a brilliant writer!!” comments as much as we just want to hear your thoughts on the story. Even if it’s just your thoughts as you’re reading of “oooh x happened! I can’t believe y said this! What’s going to happen now that z has happened?!” We literally just want to talk about what we’ve written like you would with a friend about a tv show. We’re not out here demanding praise like some entitled narcissist. 

While praising our writing skills or writing style is appreciated, it doesn’t need to be said on every fic and every chapter that you read. If you regularly comment on someone’s work that’s telling enough that you like our technique. Readers shouldn’t feel pressured to have to praise a writer’s abilities every time they want to comment. 

In the grand scheme of things, talking about the fic/chapter is actually more helpful to us writers instead of spewing praise. It’s the same with artwork. As nice as it is that people tell me “wow your art is so pretty!” it’s a LOT more useful to me to get comments like “I love their expressions!” or “the lighting on this is gorgeous!” because then I know WHAT people are liking about it. If no one ever comments on my backgrounds, I now know what to improve. If most people comment on liking the expressions, I now know the strong points of my art and can use it to my advantage to make even better art in the future. 

The same goes for fic. If multiple people tell me they liked a certain part of the story I now know that things similar to that are a hit. It’s feedback I can use to improve the story and give my readers more of what they want. Without that I have no idea what they like about the fic.

Talking with a writer about their story also gives them inspiration!! Nothing gets us more in the mood to work on a fic than to have people wanting to talk about it. A lot of times just talking about one of my fics with someone will give me that push to continue working on it. Getting a comment that just says “great chapter” or “you’re a great writer” doesn’t do much to motivate us to continue that particular fic. But if you talk about the story and the characters it gives us motivation to continue working on it, may even give us ideas for future chapters. I would hope that those of you with “comment anxiety” find this approach so much easier than trying to praise the writer every time you read.

So that fic the author hasn’t updated in forever that you’re dying to read? Talk to them about the fic and the elements of the story! It will make the writer want to talk to you about it and will get their mind thinking about it, hopefully inspiring them to continue where they left off. Fics that are left in silence are more likely to be abandoned or even deleted because nothing feels worse than putting your heart into a story to have no one say anything about it. 

TLDR; Writers do not want praise, we just want to talk with our readers about the story itself, and these are the kinds of comments that inspire us to keep writing more. 

god this tweet……

Your power is out but I guide you down the hallway with my sickass light-up shoes

Stop

they should invent water for men

Good news OP

While this is a funny joke, as far as I'm aware this company is actually pretty cool, and the purpose behind the Liquid Death (sparkling or still) water is quite wholesome.

Part of the reason for it being a tallboy is that aluminum cans are more recyclable than water bottles, potentially infinitely so, while water bottles either have a limited amount of recyclability potential or aren't actually recyclable at all.

The other reason is to literally make it more fun and appealing to drink something other than alcohol at concert venues. Part of getting over addiction or even getting away from a culture that is doing you harm is, in the US at least, heavily associated with becoming "no fun". The idea here is to make water as fun in terms of packaging as alcohol, so people who are going sober, who can't drink, or who are the Designated Driver don't have to feel like they're relegated to the "no fun zone" forever and still get to order something with a silly name. We had these at my brother's wedding as an alcohol alternative and tbh it was really neat.

From the Liquid Death website:

"Most products in the health and wellness space are all marketed with “aspirational” fitness models and airbrushed celebrities. And many of us are tired of it. Why should unhealthy products be the only brands with “permission” to be loud, fun, and weird? And let's be honest, almost all marketing and branding is just theater. So we’re going to treat our theater like a movie theater and have more fun with it."

So yeah! If you want a neat alternative to buying bottled water, this isn't a bad alternative. Also, if you feel like you miss the feeling of opening a can of beer and drinking one, especially with carbonation, this could help curb the urge without having to substitute soda.

Oh. So it was a stand against single use plastic, alcoholism culture, and eating disorders disguised as fitness.

saying this, she casually threw aside a large rock

I often wonder what happened to authors of unfinished fanfictions.

I hope they’re having a nice life

we absolutely are not and that unfinished fic haunts us to this day

Reblog if that unfinished fic haunts you to this day

This is the only tiktok you'll ever need, I've made about 13 of these and I'm not stopping anytime soon

an educational graphic about critical thinking for tumnblr

The all important journalist questions, and then some.

A missing line from Why:

“If you really want to be a critical reader, it turns out you have to step back one step further, and ask not just whether the author is telling the truth, but why he’s writing about this subject at all.“

That is an excellent addition.

One other one for How: “how could this be exploited by someone acting in bad  faith?” Closely coupled with a What: “what are the limits on the ill-effects this could produce?”

And a quick check for double standards: “who, or what, is the speaker not applying this principle to?”

(This is also a great guide for interrogating historical documents such as, say, a constitution, a press release, a speech, a letter, a diary, a bill of rights, political policies, &c)

I need to grab this and adapt this for my little filmmaking courses. 

Because these questions are equally indispensible when YOU are the author of the script, the book, the story, the speech.

A priest, a Baptist minister, and a rabbit walk into the Red Cross to donate blood

The nurse asks, what’s your blood type?

The rabbit says, “I’m probably a Type O”

Janelle Monàe blessed us y’all

Evanescence: These wounds won’t seem to heal, this pain is just too real, There’s just too much that time cannot erase

12 year old me:

Let’s not forget to acknowledge Alexandre Dumas this Black History Month

The writer of two of the most well known stories worldwide, The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo was a black man. 

That’s excellence.

Let’s not forget that he was played on screen by a white man. And the fact that he was black is barely ever mentioned or the book he wrote inspired by his experiences.

Other things not to forget about Alexandre Dumas:

ALSO IMPORTANT:

SWAG

I am absolutely ashamed to admit I had NO idea Dumas was black.

when this post first went around (a year ago apparently) I was like BUT WHAT ABOUT DADDY DUMAS THOUGH because basically

I was never taught that he was Black either. WTF.

General Dumas (aka Thomas Alexandre Davy de La Pailleterie) looked like this…

…and like this…

…while “Napoleon has all the presence of yesterday’s plain Tesco hummus“…

:-D

I suspect Alexandre Dumas would have laughed at that, because besides looking like someone who laughed a lot…

…he was also a foodie.

He was also born in present-day Haiti. Back then, it was the French colony of Saint-Domingue.

look, I know it’s ~problematic~ for all kinds of reasons but I do kind of love when there’s a character with few or no scruples who outsources their moral compass to someone else

it’s sort of the equivalent of when a cat jumps up somewhere they shouldn’t be and you just pick them up and move them off it, only with murder or whatever. 

character a looking at character b like “okay is this a situation where I can do a murder” and character b like. “no. we’ve gone over this.”

I just find it very funny

Honestly, I really side-eye people who say shit like, “I hate all hetero romances. If a guy and girl kiss, I totally lose all investment.”

Male-female pairings are not all the same and I’m kind of sick of people acting like they are. Similarly, I’m sick of people forgetting that there are LGBT+ people in male-female relationships.

I see white LGBT+ people say shit like this about positive male-female relationships between POC and I legit GROAN.

I saw someone say the relationship in If Beale Street Could Talk didn’t interest them because it was “hetero nonsense” as if young, poor black couples dealing with unjust incarceration regularly get positive, healthy representation.

If you’re tired of love stories focusing on relationships between traditionally attractive, able bodied, neurotypical, white, cishet people–especially when they’re void of chemistry and commonality and abusive but pushed as ideal (see: The Notebook)–then, I totally get it. I am, too.

But if you disparage a positive, healthy love story that features marginalized people because it’s between a man and a woman, your grasp of things like representation and intersectionality is likely weak.