I have to say I really appreciate how Into the Spider-Verse makes no effort whatsoever to give Dr. Octavius any kind of pathos. Superhero media so often goes out of its way to establish that the main villain’s female sidekick – should one be present – has Suffered Terribly and how it’s totally Not Her Fault that she’s ended up the way she is, or at least give her a humanising moment of empathy with the protagonist, but nope. She’s just a big amoral jerk and no one likes her.

What I’m saying is that Olivia Octavius is the kind of mad scientist who would unironically respond to a hero’s horrified “what in God’s name?” by exclaiming “God had nothing to do with it!”, and I respect that.

She’s someone who was shown early on to know that snatching people from other universes causes them to painfully disintegrate, but at no point does she bother to tell Fisk this. ‘Cause she has (unspoken within the movie) motives outside of Fisk wanting his family back.

So she’s totally down with Fisk seeing his family die in front of him again (and again, and again) as long as it fits with her own goals..

I NEVER EVEN THOUGHT OF THAT. 

He essentially bankrolled her entire project to steal his family from some alternate universe and Liv, knowing damn well they’d eventually disintegrate in this universe, was like “Yep, I’ll do my best, thank so much for your contribution”

cold fucking blooded.

Oh oh oh i can actually explain this!!!! (and also she actually does have a humanizing/moment of pathos in spider-verse)

SO when you’re writing a story you need to make your audience either 1) feel bad for your characters and/or 2) love them (like from an endearing standpoint). This brings balance to your story and makes your audience want to read/watch more about them.

Most writers just use the simple sympathy in the easiest boring ‘tragic backstory’ way. We feel bad because they’ve been thrown into turmoil they cant control, usually something dumb or overused. But Dr. Octavius is different. She is absolutely a villain who doesn’t care what happens to who she pulls through and wants to see Spider man fucked up. BUT we still like her as a character- we love whatever fuck shit shes on BECAUSE of how and when she’s introduced.

She’s introduced very early in the movie in this scene;

In this scene we already like miles, hes a cute spunky street artist and we sympathize him because hes being forced to go to private school where no one knows/likes him. We also sympathize him currently because he’s late to class and got embarrassed in front of everyone.

He is balancing out what the writers are about to do to Octavius.They’ve the negative “oh no, we feel bad for him, hes not doing great” in miles the protagonist right before they hit us with “Look at this smart Doctor! She’s talking about a lot of interesting and coplicated theroies! Shes so important and smart that they’re showing her video in a very prestigious school!”

Shes also nice and smiling, her character design is memorable and kind of kooky but in a fun way. Shes riding a cute bike in a sunny neighborhood for part of it. She’s working hands on with hardhats and not some inaccessible scientist locked in a lab alone. She says the word “Family” out loud ( yes its in reference to a company but it still has an impact).

We like her. Shes cool, smart, fun and important in this world. Shes the opposite of miles at this moment in time and we later find out shes an antagonist. 

THIS is her humanizing pathos moment. THIS is what allows us as an audience to love her once we find out shes a selfish immoral bad guy. Because you didn’t notice it just proves how good the writing for this movie is.

Without this scene we probably wouldn’t care about or like her, and we wouldn’t be as interested in her character. But because the writers tell us how smart and n cool and important she is at the beginning of the movie as an opposite of our uncoordinated protagonist, we love her.  

“She’s just a big amoral jerk and no one likes her.”

She has at least one friend.

I ship them so hard.

Well, Doc Oc and Aunt May did date in one version of Spiderman. I always assumed that was the subtext here.

Having gotten a Master’s bc I couldn’t get a job, I strongly suggest the job, for the same reasons as Neil.

(getting my degree also killed my will to wrote or do anything creative, so there’s that too)

As someone who is planning on going back to get her Master’s after nearly 15 years in the work force, because she FINALLY figured out what she wants to do… I recommend doing it this way, too.

As someone who went to grad school a year after undergrad and only waited a year so I could get married in-between, I totally and utterly agree. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and did it, but I also know that’s very unusual. 

Speaking in Houston on Monday, the Massachusetts Democrat suggested that medical providers should be rewarded with “bonus” funds for reducing those numbers, which are three or four times higher than for white women.“And if they don’t,” the presidential candidate said, dropping the carrot to wield a stick, “then they’re going to have money taken away from them. I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use money to make it happen, because we gotta have change and we gotta have change now.“Warren’s plan, which she discussed for the first time at the She the People conference in Texas, was greeted with sustained applause in a room largely filled by women of color – a constituency that will likely be key in deciding the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The audience quickly warmed to the senator, then sent her off with a standing ovation as she rolled through her growing suite of detailed policy proposals. Perhaps more than any other candidate in the field, Warren has offered comprehensive plans to match her campaign rhetoric, a dedicated strategy her aides and allies believe will ultimately translate into success in the polls.

Warren also spelled out the stakes in a series of tweets, crediting activists for pushing the issue into the mainstream of national politics, then offering her plan: “Hit health care providers in their wallets,” she tweeted. “Make it unacceptable for providers to tolerate our high rates of moms dying—especially black moms.”“We’ve done this in other areas of health care. Let’s do it here,” Warren added in a subsequent post. “If providers deliver quality care to black moms, they’ll make more. If they don’t, they’ll make less. Don’t just observe and debate racism in health care. Make providers pay until this crisis is fixed.”

read more

Dammit, I increasingly like Elizabeth Warren as a candidate, but I’m not sure a woman can win.

What to do.

If it helps your dilemma, this is a terrible idea that will disproportionately harm hospitals serving poor communities. It’s effectively No Child Left Behind for hospitals–ask a teacher how well that worked.

See, you’re assuming that white, affluent hospitals have better treatment rates for black women because they have more money, whereas I was assuming that they’re actually significantly worse due to racism, and that inner city hospitals would be better, at least compared with their own baseline, because the nurses are drawn from the community.  I wonder where I go to find the actual numbers on that.

Still, it doesn’t help my dilemma particularly, because Elizabeth Warren has come up with a number of other policy ideas that I like.  And I’m quite certain that no matter what policies she comes up with, good or bad, the press will focus on whether she held onto a railing going upstairs.

I hear you, she’s my least dispreferred candidate too.

You make a good point about racist providers vs. racist resource allocation, I’d be interested to see the numbers, too.

I think it’s both. There’s definitely an aspect of racist resource allocation problem, as most of the maternal mortality rate issue can be traced back to what hospital you go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/well/family/reducing-maternal-mortality.html But there’s also a major racist provider issue, as upper and middle class black folks are way more likely to die in childbirth than upper and middle class (and probably lower class too?) white folks: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/opinion/childbirth-black-women-mortality.html Providers are less likely to take black women (and nonbinary folks, I’d imagine, although that data would be much harder to find) pain seriously and listen to them when they say there’s a problem. Also, there’s some proof that basically the stress of being a black woman due to racism and inequality exasperates health problems substantially. I’ve been reading about this a lot lately. 

what is the point of oscar the grouch on sesame street?

It’s okay to not like things and it’s okay to be unhappy. He was created from the idea that “non-destructive deviance” would go over well with kids.

THANK YOU!

Basically, the point of Oscar the Grouch is so that kids know it’s okay to have fucking emotions and moods that aren’t all cheery. That’s the fucking point. And that’s even more important to the kids who are living in harsh realities. Realities where their families are falling apart or they’re not getting food every day or they’re getting abused. Telling them it’s okay to express that they are NOT HAPPY because they are HURTING is so fucking important I cannot even say it. 

Big Bird is nice, but goddamn, when you’re a kid who’s hungry and you just got beat by your caretaker and all you wanna do is hole up somewhere and tell everyone else to go away because you don’t even have words for how bad things feel? Big Bird is not your dude. Cheery happy, “well, let’s play a happy game!” Big Bird ain’t cutting it for you. Oscar the Grouch is your dude. Oscar the Grouch is the dude who tells you it’s okay to put the lid on your garbage can and be alone and be upset.

Big Bird tries to talk you out of being upset (and maybe sometimes that’s okay). But Oscar the Grouch teaches you that, no, it’s okay to be upset and you have every right to stay upset and grouchy and unhappy until you’re at a point where that can change. Oscar the Grouch teaches you that you have a right to your emotions, whatever they are.

On a more advanced level, the point of Oscar is to start teaching kids that it’s okay to have boundaries, it’s okay to want to just go into your trash can (home/safe place) and not be bothered, it’s okay to defend those boundaries and say “go away!” when you want people to go the fuck away and that you can still have a place on Sesame Street. That not everyone has to be shiny, happy Big Bird. 

That’s the point of Oscar the Grouch.

“what is the point of oscar the grouch” who even made you

Also Oscar the Grouch *likes* things that no one else likes and he’s completely unapologetic about it. 

The fact that people tell you things you like are stupid doesn’t make it’s true. He loves trash. He loves it because it’s trash. That’s important too.

As is the fact that *even though everyone thinks his interests are stupid*, people don’t take his trash away and they don’t drag him out of his can.

Also he has *fantastic* body language. Boundary laden but also very emotional. And just the way he likes stuff and expresses interest…

…Oscar the Grouch = awesome.

This is a wonderful series of texts post that needs to be shared with all of you

Thing of it is, they don’t even think his interests are stupid. Weird, yes. But here’s the great part.

THE DENIZENS OF SESAME STREET FREQUENTLY INDULGE OSCAR IN HIS WEIRD LIKES, AND END UP HAVING FUN DOING SO.

At least back in the 80′s, Oscar had a whole troupe of grouch scouts who enjoyed looking for nifty trash, a group of kids and even Telly Monster. Susan and Gordon end up at a Grouch club with Oscar after their original dinner and dance plans fall apart, and end up having a great night dancing the award-winning Trash Can Tango.

And there’s Oscar’s beloved pet Slimey the worm, possibly the only being Oscar openly admits he likes. Not everyone goes the puppy or kitten route, and thus the idea of unconventional and less-than-cuddly yet no less beloved pets is brought to kids (on top of Slimey’s own adventures).

Oscar teaches that it’s okay to be weird, okay to be different, and that maybe if you don’t reject the weird and different at first glance, you may very well find something (or someone) interesting and fun. And that even when someone can be prickly and dour at times, you can still be their friend. He also subtly teaches a bit of Henson’s love of subversion, of quiet rebellion, of questioning and skepticism and snark.

And if you don’t think the Grouch diner sequence from Follow That Bird alone justifies Oscar’s existence, you and I have nothing to talk about.

Oscar is a precious sweetie.

Have you met fandom, OP? He is literally a precious trash baby.

My three-year-old unabashedly loves his stuffed Slimey the worm. Sleeps with it every night and carries it around a ton.  Also, do people wonder the same thing about Eeyore? Because at least in the original books, he’s way more cranky and misanthropic than in the Disney version. 

Wait, there are people who believe that was a real thing!?

I knew it wasn’t a real thing in real-life, but I thought it was a thing that happened in those type of movies. I had no idea it was one of those “almost but not quite there” type of misconceptions. 

Seriously, kids, you need to understand that those of us over the age of 30 are still allowed on the internet.

*uncomfortably aware she’s been using the same username since ‘94*

My twitter handle is the same as the hotmail address I started using in 9th grade (my second hotmail address), which was in 1997. I may have been using it before then on X-Files fanfic forums, but I honestly don’t remember. 

Why Catra Makes Me Cry

When Adora first left the Horde she told Catra she was leaving because the Horde was evil, did monstrous things to innocent people, and had been lying to them the whole time. And Catra responded, “what, you didn’t know?”.

And there’s so much to unpack there, but what really killed me was when I thought about why that was. Why was Catra so cynical when Adora bought the propaganda?

It’s because of how they were raised. Shadowweaver raised both of them abusively, but they got different flavors of abuse. Adora was the Golden Child and Catra was the Scapegoat. They were both abused, but Catra caught the brunt of the most violent abuse. She knew the Horde hurt innocent people because she was one of them.

And that puts a whole new twist on how angry Catra was when Adora wanted to leave. When Adora said “what the Horde is doing is wrong and we should leave because of it”, Catra’s response wasn’t really “you’re just learning the Horde hurts innocent people now?” it was, “it wasn’t enough to make you leave when they hurt me?”.

That’s why she’s so angry. From her perspective, Adora was willing to leave the Horde because of what they did to these random people they’d never met before. But she’d never offered to do the same for her.

Catra refused to go with Adora because, just by asking, she broke her heart.

This hits me HARD, and sheds some light on why I feel a certain kinship with Adora and a fierce love for Catra.

This seems like pretty much the same relationship between Gamora and Nebula. 

It is so annoying. Svaha has fun, geeky dresses with pockets at least: https://svahausa.com 

she snapped

hOLY SHIT BARBIE <3 <3

One of my favorite bloggers just wrote about exactly this! https://herviewfromhome.com/why-im-radically-changing-the-way-i-use-this-word/

*pssss pass it on, Hanukkah is not Jewish Christmas*

Chanukah is a largely unimportant holiday that is as popular as it is because it sits next to Christmas most years. however, the holiday exists because the Jews of Israel (which was controlled by Greece at the time) did everything they could to resist assimilation. the important thing isn’t the oil or the menorah; it’s that the Greeks told the Jews that they were not allowed to worship their god, and the Jews refused.

when you call Chanukah “Jewish Christmas,” you go against why we have Chanukah in the first place. when you ask Jews if they still celebrate Christmas, while knowing that they are Jewish and observant, you go against why we have Chanukah in the first place. when you claim that Christmas is an American holiday, not a religious one, you go against why we have Chanukah in the first place. when you pity us for not celebrating Christmas, you go against why we have Chanukah in the first place.

Jews do not need Christianity or Christmas to be happy. Jews do not need to be assimilated to be happy. we don’t need your pity. we have our own way of doing things that works without yours.

I strongly encourage Christians to reblog this.

Reblogging specifically because of the request.  

‪God can I just talk about the neutron star collision real quick. It’s just… when I was born there were only like 3 exoplanets. The discovery of GRB Afterglow is less than a month older than I. We hadn’t observed the effects of the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy. We didn’t know what Pluto looked like. We didn’t have the ISS yet. ‬

‪In twenty years we’ve learned so much. In twenty years we put rovers on Mars. We found water on Mars! Liquid water! We’ve found thousands of exoplanets. We got to see what Pluto looked like with New Horizons. We’ve mapped the stars in the center of our galaxy and we’ve proved that there’s a supermassive black hole there.

‪But god, the most incredible thing was gravitational waves. In 2015 LIGO recorded the first one, just a small little blip lasting a fraction of a second. But that’s all that was needed. We proved Einstein right nearly 100 years later. And then the one that just came out. I can’t even describe how incredible it is. For over 100 seconds we recorded these waves, massive waves. We were able to triangulate the source. ‬

‪We saw it. In a moment of planetwide esprit de corps we saw it. We saw the gamma ray burst. We saw the afterglow. Two neutron stars, no bigger than manhattan, colliding at nearly the speed of light some 130 million years ago. And we saw it. We took pictures of it. ‬

And look at all the papers that’ll be coming out of this. Some 3,500 people were involved with this. 3,500 people, from over 70 observatories and detectors all over the world, using hundreds of instruments, made this happen. Yesterday 40 papers were published, along with a flurry of press conferences and jovial announcements.

‪In a moment, our species graduated from electromagnetic observing to being able to detect ripples in the very fabric of spacetime. ‬

‪In twenty years, in a cosmic moment, we’ve stretched our legs and are beginning to take our first clumsy footsteps into the universe around us. ‬

This is a feeling I recognize well: when I was a kid, we had no idea what killed the dinosaurs (the asteroid-impact theory was just one idea among many, and the Chicxulub crater had not yet been found), dinosaurs were generally believed to be more closely related to lizards than birds, and certainly nothing alive was descended from dinosaurs, and they were generally assumed to be cold-blooded. That all changed, very quickly, over the 90s and early 2000s.

I had the same feeling again when the COBE results came in and suddenly the Big Bang went from “pretty likely” to “we can basically look at it.”

This is one of the things I adore about my job. I get to regularly say, “We found what? We’re doing what? That’s so cool!”

(via r/justneckbeardthings)

I started thinking about how following the plot of My Fair Lady would result in the woman falling in love with the redpiller, which ew, no… and my train of thought led me to Coppelia, but instead of magic puppets it’s anime waifu body pillows or RealDolls, I haven’t decided.

I somehow have even more respect for you that you made a Coppelia reference. As a kid, I went to the New York City ballet at their summer home in Saratoga every summer with my mom and Coppelia was my favorite. It was also one of the few ballets with an actual happy ending. (There are so many freaking deaths in the ballet.)

It’s called Raising Dion

Will 100% watch and support this show #RepresentationMatters

Here’s where you can purchase the comic book in book form or digital copy:

http://www.indyplanet.us/product/128905/

Oh shit, they got a show! Awesome!

This looks absolutely amazing. I will watch this in a heartbeat. As a parent, just the idea of a parent-centered show that’s both fantastic (in the fantasy sense) and emotionally realistic grabs me immediately. Add to the representation part - and well. Bam.

i really admire the design for these stairs and how they incorporate a wheelchair access ramp. in a world were barrier free design is essential to living a full and happy life, its amazing to see landscape architect Cornelia Oberlander has taken literal steps to design stairs AROUND a ramp, instead of the other way around.

This is beautiful.

Form AND function excuse me while I die

OH I REALLY LIKE THIS

[Image description from the original poster: photo taken from above of a broad flight of stairs in three levels, leading up from a public lobby into a functional part of the building, only partially visible. A long wheelchair ramp zigzags across the steps, leading up from the lobby to the top level, creating a striking visual impression. The steps, walls, ramp, and lobby floor are all a similar shade of sandy beige. Description ends.]

Excuse me, but –

As a wheelchair user, when I first saw this photo a couple of years ago, my first reaction was:

Ahhh! Nightmare Fuel!

Think about it: in order to get from one level to the other, a wheelchair user has to cross back and forth right into the paths of the ambulatory. And I don’t mean to offend (some of my best friends are bipeds), but you lot are clueless. 

There’s something about our culture that makes wheelchair users invisible in a crowd (people have no trouble making space for little children to pass freely through a public space, so it’s not a sight line issue). I have had to fight for space grudgingly given on public sidewalks, where everyone is going in the same direction. So imagine the angry, resentful reaction I’d get crossing into the path of someone checking their phone, or engaged in conversation with a companion.

Also, that design means that for most of that area, there are no handrails. What if someone tripped? And there’s no contrasting color between the ramp and the main flight of steps. What about people with low vision? That thing has so many trip points.

Seriously. I have had nightmares where ramps like this showed up.

No handrails, no colour contrast… and the terrain switches between steps and a /sloped/ flat surface. That’s a more complex task than going between stairs and flat landings - for the brain, and for the ankles. I can see myself tripping easily on these stairs.

I can also envision a wheelchair getting the wheels of one side on a step running parallel to the ramp and starting to tilt.

Oh, yeah. I’ve had that happen to me, a couple of times, when I’ve been careless enough to take a curb cut in a rush, and my motor chair tipped over completely, and I ended up on the ground.

And a motorized chair can weigh as much as 400 pounds. When I’ve tipped over in my chair, before, it’s taken the help of three or four people for me to get upright again.

Now: imagine that happening in a crowd. Where there is no flat space for any would-be helpers to stand.

Like I said: nightmare fuel.

Frankly, this is typical of abled people rushing in to offer “help” in order to earn praise, and make themselves feel better (look at how pretty I made it), without actually asking what sort of help we need.

Bad architect! Bad approval committee! No cookies for you!

I am not a wheelchair user, but I used to push wheelchairs around a hospital for a living. 

Looking at this, I see multiple points where a wheelchair would have to make a sharp hairpin turn or wind up going straight down a flight of stairs. 

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but it looks like straight down is the better option: if you hit at an angle, with one side still on the ramp, you could just tip right over and wind up rolling down those damned stairs, with or without your chair.

“Please correct me if I’m wrong …”

You are not wrong.

Here’s what I’m wondering: Why the hell put the steps in at all? Why not just make the ramp path wider, to accommodate more people – with an elegant, decorative, handrail along the ramp’s entire length?  That could be just as visually striking (in a different way) as this Escher-esque abomination from the depths of Creepy Valley.

But, actually, I know why: it’s because a “grand entrance staircase” is what’s expected for “the general public,” and the ramp is included as proof that “We also welcome those Others.”

This is a prime example of people trying to be “inclusive” without actually getting input from those they are “including.” And why you need to actually LISTEN TO THE DISABLED about accessibility instead of using them as inspiration porn for silly ideas that look good on paper (if you don’t think too hard) but are useless for practical application. 

And then, when the Disabled don’t use the thing the professional Inspiration Junkie put So-Much-Work into (because it’s not usable), city planners and business owners have an excuse to say: “Accessible Design is a waste of resources” and not bother enforcing the laws that are already on the books.

While I’m here, I’d like to point out two things:

1) The handrails that are there are the ugly, generic, kind you see in hospitals. They definitely don’t fit the architect’s Artistically Clever Aesthetic. How much do you want to bet some city or state Safety Inspector took one look at the building and said: “You are not allowed to open until you put some safety rails in. No, I do not care how much this project has already cost you.” So they had to figure out how to put something up at the last minute, after their budget was already shot.

2) I honestly worry about bipedal people coming down those stairs, because every single step on the far side of the ramp path sticks up above the walking level. I can’t judge by how much, from the perspective in the photo, but my guess is at least a couple of inches. That’s definitely an accident waiting to happen.

Ramps can be harder to navigate than stairs for people with some kinds of mobility issues, for example Parkinson’s disease, where going down a ramp can be much more dangerous than going down stairs due to festination.

Or if you have knee problems. Or if it’s icy/wet. I had to climb a hill back and forth in college every day my senior year that had paved paths and it was hellish when it was icy. Most people just ended up walking on the grass. With stairs, at least there are flat places to stop and get your balance. You really need both, unfortunately.

Wordpress you can run as an actual website - a ton of really big websites are built on its back-end - whereas Blogger is limited to just blogging. Being self-hosted on Wordpress is a pain to move all of your stuff, but I did it and it’s worth it. You have access to loads of stuff you don’t have on Wordpress-hosted sites, like Google Analytics, plug-ins for sharing, etc.

‪Am I the only person who loves autumn, but loathes Halloween?

I love the mythology around Halloween, spirits, monsters, and stuff. It’s just everything else that’s been tacked onto it.

I hate horror, indifferent to spooky stuff, fireworks stress me out, and I don’t like how it’s largely became an excuse to recklessly drink and party. It’s also just a prime time for people to do horrible things and be asshole

I don’t loathe Halloween, but I don’t really care for it. It kinda lost its luster once I realized that, as a grownup, I can eat a big bag full of candy whenever I want.

Autumn is best season, though.

Halloween with kids is back to being Awesome Halloween. I’m totally the parent who loves rather than loathes trick-or-treating with their small children. 

Plus, it gives you a really good reason to dress up that you lack as an adult. Dressing up elaborately to give out candy is kind of a waste and really elaborate costumes for barhopping are annoying. But they’re perfect for trick-or-treating. 

I would once again like to reiterate my belief that murder is an appropriate response to people singing on the Metro, and the law should be adjusted to recognize this.

Are head movements and/or lip-syncing acceptable?

As long as they’re quiet, I’m fine. But singing at people who don’t have a choice about being sung at ought to be considered a hate crime.

Also Jesus Christ how deep into my archive did you go to find this?

What about people who do it to make a bit of money?

I have literally never seen anybody do this. Everytime somebody sings on the metro, it’s either been this one asshole on the Red Line who sings about Jesus during the morning commute, or people singing along with the music in their headphones.

It’s extremely common in New York. Last time I was there, there was a mariachi band with an accordion.

No one sings ON a metro train, at least as far as I’ve experienced, all the singers and music playersa re typically outside the stations. But then maybe I’m taking the wrong ones,

Nah, the Times Square Shuttle (the S train) has a near 100%-rate of people performing for money in my limited experience

I wonder if this is a DC/New York difference thing

I think it probably is–DC just doesn’t have many buskers to begin with, and they usually are found just outside the stations.

But as I said, I have encountered people singing on the train itself, but never asking for money.

In the entire time I’ve lived in the D.C. area (9 years), I’ve had someone singing on the Metro exactly once asking for money. They were accompanied by someone with an accordion. I wanted to throw something at them. I see people in Metro Center station, but that’s different than on the train. In contrast, in NYC last weekend, we had two different sets of people trying to perform for money on the train in the two days we were there. One group was singing and one was dancing. 

Nerdy Fact #1434: Wonder Woman was originally based on two women: the wife of creator William Marston and one of his former students that both he and his wife had sexual encounters with. 

(Source.)

How about you actually name ‘em?

Elizabeth Holloway Marston and Olive Byrne were among a number of women who contributed to the original Wonder Woman, and they’re fascinating people in their own right.

Elizabeth Holloway Marston was a brilliant woman. She earned three university degrees in psychology and law at a time when few women received any tertiary education. She was a successful career woman who assisted her husband with his work and was frequently the breadwinner of the family.

The main reason she was able to continue working after having children? Olive Byrne, who was not simply a casual “sexual encounter”, but the Marstons’ lover and life partner. To enable Elizabeth to work, Olive stayed at home and raised both her and Elizabeth’s children. She also wrote for Family Circle and contributed to Marston’s research.

Elizabeth is credited with pushing her husband to create a female superhero, and after his death she worked hard to preserve his vision for the character, urging DC to employ her as the comic’s editor (she was ignored).

Wonder Woman’s bracelet’s are Olive’s bracelets: Olive was known for wearing a pair of wide silver bracelets, and Marston had these in mind when he envisioned Diana’s bullet-deflecting accessories.

Marston died in 1947, but Elizabeth and Olive continued to live together until the end of their lives.

Wait. Clarification please. Are you telling me that the creator of Wonder WOMAN WAS IN A POLY-AMOROUS RELATIONSHIP?

Yep! They were in a poly relationship and had four children together, two by Elizabeth and two by Olive.

(And for those who’ve asked about sources, the Marstons’ story is covered in detail in The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore and Wonder Woman: The Complete History by Les Daniels)

Wonder Woman was inspired and shaped by not only a man who was incredibly progressive and awesome by todays standards let alone the standards of the day he lived in but also by a fierce, intelligent and awesome bisexual woman

This is one of the many reasons why the ways DC has ruined Wonder Woman in their pursuit of making the book as backwards and heteronormative as possible pisses me off…

Not a fierce and intelligent and awesome bisexual woman.

Two fierce and intelligent and awesome bisexual women. 

You are correct :D

Imagine growing up in that house

“Mom wants to see you.”

“Psychology mom or bracelet mom?”

“Bracelet mom.”

According to Lepore, the kids called Elizabeth “Keetie” and Olive “Dotsie”!

That is adorable.

I have reblogged this before and will continue to do it until the day I die. The origin story of WW comics is as fucking great as the character herself.

A movie about these three called Professor Marston and the Wonder Women is due out this year. It stars Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall, and Bella Heathcote.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore is an amazing, interesting book, and was an immense help for me during my research project on Wonder Woman (as an American icon) in my American Studies class.  I highly recommend it if you’re interested in the origins of Wonder Woman, or in learning more about these really cool people!

(Fun fact; much of Marston’s inspiration for the Wonder Woman character also came from Olive Byrne’s aunt, Margaret Sanger, a very well known suffragette, feminist, and birth control advocate who established the organizations which turned into Planned Parenthood, and is most known on tumblr for her misconstrued quote about providing abortions to black women. To be clear, I am not an expert on Sanger, and I’ve few doubts that she likely held many of the racist views that were standard in her time (which is not an excuse), though on many fronts it seems she was more progressive).

ANYWAYS, back to Wonder Woman … the movie is being written and directed by Angela Robison, a black lesbian who has worked on The L Word, How to Get Away with Murder, True Blood, and her own short film about lgbt teenage lady spies, D.E.B.S.  For full disclosure, I have not seen much of her work, besides Herbie: Fully Loaded, and episodes of HTGAWM, but I’m excited nonetheless, because A; representation! and B; I’ll feel a lot more comfortable about having this film directed and written by someone who isn’t straight.  I’m also 98% sure she’s a feminist herself, judging by this excellent gif she tweeted last year.

@philsandifer‘s A Golden Thread - An Unofficial Critical History of Wonder Woman is also very, very good and came out before Jill Lepore’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Thread-Unofficial-Critical-History-ebook/dp/B00G8U22UW/  That movie sounds awesome though.