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From the ever-inspiring aidosaur.
the thing about Brienne is, I’m certainly in favor of beauty ideals being expanded, but I’m getting a lot of people arguing that she’s not REALLY ugly (in the book) and it’s just like, that’s it, that’s exactly what I was talking about.
It’s just that if you get a description of a woman in a book and it says she has a face “like boiled ham” that could “curdle milk” (approximate quotes from the book, spoken by a character that actually likes and respects her) and she has huge crooked teeth, swollen lips, and a big squashed nose, she’s six foot seven and heavily muscled with a thick neck and giant hands, and literally every character who comes in contact with her makes a comment about how unattractive she is, she is a spectacle when she rides through towns, she’s referred to as “freakish”…like, why would you even need to rationalize how she’s secretly hot and is just being unfairly judged? It’s certainly not relevant to the story. Why does the twist ending have to be “she was beautiful all along”? Why can’t we just let her be brave and strong and awesome and loyal and determined and kind and ugly?
Even if you are well-intentioned and mean it to be a sort of “everyone is beautiful” message, it still kind of feeds back into a culture where a person - and specifically a woman - has to be physically beautiful to be valuable.
I like Brienne because she flies in the face of that. She doesn’t have to have her makeover moment. She has the purest and most noble heart of anyone in the series, she’s a fantastic fighter, she’s valuable - and she’s ugly.
Brienne’s ugliness is important and unique.
Girls feel ugly sometimes. No matter how often someone tells you about inner beauty, or that everyone is beautiful, girls are still conscious of the fact that certain forms are sought after by certain groups. They’re aware that various standards of beauty exist, and they place themselves on those scales. You can tell them not to do that every day of their lives, but many will not be able to help it.
Even establishing other standards of beauty doesn’t solve this problem. Recently I’ve seen a lot of illustrations of gorgeously curvy women with heart-shaped faces and hourglass figures. I think it’s great that we’re embracing other kinds of beauty… but I don’t fit that template either. There are a lot of girls who don’t fit any of the many different “attractive” templates. There are girls who just don’t have the prettiest face, and telling them “all faces are pretty,” might sound nice, but I don’t know how helpful it is.
There are real-world negative consequences for girls who society considers ugly, and we can’t just pretend that they don’t exist. Saying that appearance doesn’t matter is a lot like claiming that no one is racist anymore - it would be great if it were true, but pretending that it’s true doesn’t actually help.
Brienne is aware of society’s opinion of her appearance, suffers through it, and persevers despite it. She builds a life that is based around something other than the dream of “going swan” later on.
That story needs to be told more often.
Me: OK, brain. I’ve been laying here for twenty minutes now. Time for sleep!
Brain: Nah, I think I’m going to just hallucinate ghost cats until you feed me webcomics.
Me: Goddamit, brain!
Brain: Meoooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwww.
How do the Foglios always manage to pull off emotional relationship twists that hit me absolutely perfectly? They’ve done it multiple times, with pairings that I actually like, and it’s the best. Literally - the two most romantic conversations I’ve ever encountered in any fiction take place in this goddam comic. I can’t link you to an example, because it’s an eleven-volume continuity-based series that’s been running for over ten years, and… spoilers. Look, just… just go to the beginning of the comic, read the whole thing, and meet me back here in a week. Deal? Deal.
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104
“First, remember that style comes in all sizes, so the bigger you are, the more style you have. And second, draw attention to your best features by pointing at them, and conceal your flaws by sucker punching anyone who mentions them.” —
Those fashion tips are courtesy of noted style icon and total badass Miss Piggy. (via fuckyeahwomenprotesting2)
HIIIYA! Ms. Piggy is a fucking winner.
(via hamburgerjack)
Miss Piggy is my freaking role model.
(via pilgrimkitty)
I was never into the Muppets as a kid because they terrified me, but I’m thinking that I should give it a second go because this is a style philosophy I can get behind.
(via brofisting)
Just tonight, I realized how much of my worldview was shaped by the Muppets.
I chose wisely.
(Source: timeoutnewyork, via gingerhaze)
hulu:
No Hulu, I am fine with my life choices!
Oh! We didn’t realize you were watching Community. In that case, carry on!
HAHA wow I’m really glad Netflix doesn’t do this.
“You’ve been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for 36 hours straight. A-are you okay?”
I can’t stop looking at this perfect illustration. Michiru and Haruka are still my favorite thing about Sailor moon.
(Source: natazilla)
(via twentypercentcooler)
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