Cultural Tumble

eyeglasses-and-gauges: I’m so done. Not mine. found it on...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 04:03:33 -0400

eyeglasses-and-gauges:

I’m so done.

Not mine. found it on youtube. IT’S AWESOME.
WHY DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE VIEWS.

Sweet fancy moses, this is what the internet was invented for.

From the ever-inspiring aidosaur.

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 01:32:03 -0400

From the ever-inspiring aidosaur.

gingerhaze: the thing about Brienne is, I’m certainly in favor of beauty ideals being expanded, but...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:01:02 -0400

gingerhaze:

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.

Insomnia Follies

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 06:06:17 -0400

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.

Girl Genius does it again.

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 03:43:46 -0400

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..."

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:20:51 -0400

“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.

gingerhaze: hulu: camelot-tis-a-silly-place: No Hulu, I am...

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:38:49 -0400

gingerhaze:

hulu:

camelot-tis-a-silly-place:

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...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 17:55:23 -0400

I can’t stop looking at this perfect illustration. Michiru and Haruka are still my favorite thing about Sailor moon.

Photo

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 22:35:40 -0500

postcardsfromspace: I really hate the Idiot Nerd Girl meme, so...

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 01:20:29 -0500

postcardsfromspace:

I really hate the Idiot Nerd Girl meme, so I decided to stage a cheerful coup with the aid of some friends. Join us?

This is marvelous.

fillydelphia: evil-muffins: howdoponieswork: Credit to Steve...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 21:57:20 -0500

fillydelphia:

evil-muffins:

howdoponieswork:

Credit to Steve Ross for the quote. I just thought it was perfect for Pinkie Pie.

Thank you, Pinkie Pie ;~;

^

This perfectly captures everything I love about ponies in general and Pinkie Pie in particular.

oxboxer: I know why everyone’s so scared of Fake Geek Girls!...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:15:41 -0500

oxboxer:

I know why everyone’s so scared of Fake Geek Girls! SURVIVAL HINGES ON CONSTANT VIGILANCE.

I would totally go to VeldtCon. Seems like a good time.

So many things about this are awesome. maz-z: This is...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:02:58 -0400

So many things about this are awesome.

maz-z:

This is absolutely, incredibly adorable. ♥

This is correct in every possible way.

Tue, 10 May 2011 23:34:00 -0400

This is correct in every possible way.

Here are some great Harry Potter Fanarts recommended by Kate...

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 08:55:40 -0400

Here are some great Harry Potter Fanarts recommended by Kate Beaton a while ago. This one is my favorite. Such Majesty.

Holy crap guys. This is Wendy Pini. Cosplaying Red Sonja. I just...

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:15:00 -0400

Holy crap guys. This is Wendy Pini. Cosplaying Red Sonja. I just clicked on a link about retro cosplay and got this. How was this not the headline? Anyway, clickthrough to read the article.

friendshipismagic: ramlives: wichatime: hospitalvespers: thou...

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:32:49 -0400

friendshipismagic:

ramlives:

wichatime:

hospitalvespers:

thought i’d draw the ponies as people!

Ohmygosh these are the cutest versions ever. <3 Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh.

:D

I’m loving Rarity.

Photo

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 06:36:54 -0400

akie-tara: This is Tum-Blah the Earth Pony. Her Specialty is...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:23:07 -0400

akie-tara:

This is Tum-Blah the Earth Pony.

Her Specialty is reblogging everything…

EVERYTHING

(sdfghjkl. I love how this turned out. ;w; Made completely from scratch. No tracing.

And it looks like it came directly from the shooowwwwww. ;w; )

Sometimes, I like a thing that isn’t My Little Pony. This...

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:33:33 -0400

Sometimes, I like a thing that isn’t My Little Pony.

This article was one of those things. I don’t watch Smallville, and I never will, but I would totally watch it with these guys.

twentypercentcooler:

Smallvillains Episode 1.7: Craving:

Chris: Our original plan for this week was to take on Jeph Loeb’s Red Kryptoniote episode from Season 2, but with the announcement that three-time Academy Award nominee Amy Adams had been cast as Lois Lane in Zack Snyder’s upcoming Superman film, we realized we had no choice but to go with a different selection: Season 1’s “Craving,” in which Amy Adams stars as a Smallville High student with a Kryptonite enhanced eating disorder.

David: I really wish we’d watched the Loeb joint. I hate everyone who recommended this with a fury equivalent to a thousand suns.

Chris: Yeah, it was… well, it was not very good, but to be fair, it was exactly the level of quality you had to expect from a Season 1 episode of Smallville about space meteor bulimia.

David: No, I think it might have been worse.