I Can Count to Apple.

"For the last three decades many Americans have puzzled over a system that gives an R to a movie in..."

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:32:39 -0400

““For the last three decades many Americans have puzzled over a system that gives an R to a movie in which a women is carved up by a chainsaw and an NC-17 to one that shows a woman sexually pleasured. From such ratings one might conclude that sexual violence against women is OK for American teenagers to see, but that they must be 18 to see consensual sex. What message does this send to the kids the MPAA presumably means to protect?””

- Carrie Rickey

(via fireworkselectricbright)

“You have to question a cinematic culture which preaches artistic expression, and yet would support a decision that is clearly a product of a patriarchy-dominant society, which tries to control how women are depicted on screen. The MPAA is okay supporting scenes that portray women in scenarios of sexual torture and violence for entertainment purposes, but they are trying to force us to look away from a scene that shows a woman in a sexual scenario which is both complicit and complex. It’s misogynistic in nature to try and control a woman’s sexual presentation of self. I consider this an issue that is bigger than this film.”

-Ryan Gosling on the controversy around the rating of his film ‘Blue Valentine’

(via misandry-mermaid)

Please, don't make fandom look bad.

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:31:24 -0400

flyingcatnall:

I never post on Tumblr, so I’m hoping my few followers can help me get this word out by reblogging…

I work for a hotel that hosts a major US con every year. I love anime and I go to cons myself, but I am going to be blunt about some of the problems we have and how we deal with them. I don’t know why people lose common sense when attending cons. I realize that most con-goers are young, and probably haven’t traveled alone before. They’re also really excited to go to a con and to see people they’ve only chatted with on line.

But…things have gotten out of hand.

So, please…read this list of Bad Behaviors that I’ve seen over the past three years and please…don’t do them!

1. Completely Trashing Rooms. I have part of the team that has to take pictures of the damages left behind after a con. We will bill you. Sometimes, we won’t even tell you. We’ll just charge it on your credit or debit card. Again, the tiny print in the contract allows us to do this. We take pictures in case you try and dispute the charge with the credit card.

2. Being a Homeless Congoer. These are the people who don’t have a room but figure they can sleep in the lobby, stairwell, hallways, whatever. We’re on to you. We will remove you from the premises. If you are underage, we will still call the police.

3. Being Unable to Pay for Your Room or Food. These are the people who usually make arrangements for rooms with online friends. One friend books the room on a credit card, but when it comes time to settle the bill and the so-called friends are asked to pay their share in cash or come up their own credit card to split…there’s suddenly no money. I feel bad for the person who booked the room, and I’m sorry that you’re not going to make rent, or that your mom is sick, or that you’re a poor college student or whatever. Please don’t stand in the lobby and cry or try to offer me “free art commissions” or the horns off your Homestuck costume. My hotel does not accept those as payment.

4. Having Noise Complaints Lodged Against You. So, that little gathering you decided to have in your room is getting pretty loud and despite two phone calls from the desk asking you to quiet down, you refuse to do so. Guess what, the hotel management is throwing you out. We’ll have our security guards tell you and then the police will escort you from the premises. No, you will not get a refund. No, we don’t care you have nowhere to go. Maybe those two phone calls should’ve clued you into the problems you were causing.

6. Acting Like You Own the Hotel. These are the people who think that since they paid X dollars for their con badge and Y dollars for the room they are entitled to do whatever and whenever they want. Here are some of the most ridiculous (and this is by far not an inclusive list):

a. Taking their clothes off and running down the hall
b. Wearing full Homestuck body paint and jumping in the pool and hot tubs.
c. Screaming “KAWAII!” at random people
d. Camping out in the hotel restaurant and not ordering anything
e. Running through a wedding reception in different a ballroom while shouting “HETALIA!!!”
f. Smashing a brand new TV in one of the rooms
g. Sex in the lobby. While in cosplay.
h. Setting up an “art table” in the middle of the lobby. (She didn’t get an artist alley table and was mad about it…
i. Pulling the fire alarm at 3AM and forcing an evacuation (This person was prosecuted. We caught them on tape)
k. A cosplay-photo shoot that went out of control with photographers physically fighting with each other…in the lobby.

One more note: Our manager is really upset about the amount of clean-up required after the Homestuck cosplayers we had last year. Bathrooms and bathtubs were covered in gray body paint, and the pool and hot tubs had to be drained and cleaned because some of them thought that would be a quick way to get it off. Manager is thinking of putting in the contract with the con that they have to ban Homestuck cosplay to prevent this in the future.

So, as a Homestuck, I beg you! Please, please, don’t do this! Clean up after yourself!

coelasquid: scribuscaballus reblogged your photoset: oldmanyellsatcloud: mrbutts: … I always...

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:00:39 -0400

coelasquid:

scribuscaballus reblogged your photoset: oldmanyellsatcloud: mrbutts: …

I always thought he was a Mexican!

The actor who played him was, the character was supposed to be Indian. Which is a pretty significant issue unto itself, that they would just be like “okay brown people are interchangeable” and call it a day. But this is 2013, we should be able to do better than this.

And I absolutely refuse to buy into the excuse people have been throwing around that popular white English actor du jour is so peerlessly talented that no Indian actor could possibly play the part as well as him. This kind of thing could be a career-establishing role, and they snatched it away from a demographic that very rarely gets the opportunity to take centre stage in American cinema.

coelasquid: oldmanyellsatcloud: mrbutts: jazuthewasianprincess...

Tue, 14 May 2013 17:33:07 -0400

coelasquid:

oldmanyellsatcloud:

mrbutts:

jazuthewasianprincess:

beeishappy:

TDS | 2013.05.13

AH, I HAVE DISCOVERED WHY I HATE YOUR GUTS.

this… this explains some things.

~~I’m not crying.~~

For a guy who hates philisophical shows, he sure tries to make a lot of shows that TACKLE CORE PHILISOPHICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT REALITY AND THE HUMAN CONDITION A LOT. (And then abandons them).

Maybe that’s why he didn’t realize that Khan Noonien Singh is a Northern Indian Sikh.

coelasquid: It’s not just bracelets, I’m talking about...

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:35:11 -0400

coelasquid:

It’s not just bracelets, I’m talking about organizations with televised campaigns and celebrity spokespeople

Like oh boy I’m sure that a Breast cancer patient in line for a mastectomy feels very comforted that David Arquette wants to talk about boobies.

The history of breast cancer awareness groups and the whole pink ribbon thing is riddled with a lot of really disheartening trends of trying to cutesy up the disease for the sake of selling products and silence victims actually dealing with the consequences of it. The origin of the pink ribbon was largely a commercial move on the part of Estee Lauder and it crushed out the grassroots peach ribbon campaign that tried to steer away from commercialism. As sad as it is to say, companies are said to “like” breast cancer because it’s a safe charity that doesn’t involve controversial politics and allows them to appear sympathetic at very little cost. Consumers see a pink ribbon and think “I am doing a good thing by buying this” and profits increase. With a marketing angle like that, it makes commercial sense to steer the image consumers associate with breast cancer away from the scary, destructive… you know… cancery things.

It’s like if you were trying to raise awareness for War Amps and made a whole campaign out of showing pretty people flexing their limbs and celebrities talking about how great it is to have arms and how you should avoid risky behaviour that might cause you to lose a limb. And then if someone came in and said “Hey how about we do a campaign with a model like Alex Minsky or something to raise awareness for people who… you know… already have lost limbs” they just got a response like “no that’s a downer, no one wants to see that.”

————-

Rebloggable by request.

theconstantdrumming: URGENT ALERT: In Alabama, teachers are...

Tue, 14 May 2013 16:28:32 -0400

theconstantdrumming:

URGENT ALERT: In Alabama, teachers are forced by law to lie to their students and say that being gay is a criminal offence. We have a chance right now to end this terrible law.

Lesbian, gay, bi, and questioning youth in Alabama are being fed this false information that hurts their mental and physical health, and makes it more likely they’ll be bullied or worse.

Alabama lawmakers now have in front of them a new bill to strike this anti-gay section from the law, but there’s only a few weeks before this session is over. If they don’t feel the pressure from the public and the media, this bill will languish in committee and we won’t have another chance before 2014.

Tell the tell Alabama lawmakers to pass the “Hate Doesn’t Belong in the Classroom” bill (HB 496) before the next class of students graduates. Sign and share now!

A QUICK LESSON ON CROPS AND WHIPS FROM YOUR FAVOURITE HORSE RIDER

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:15:21 -0400

satan-doge:

iwillincendiotheheartoutofyou:

THIS IS A CROP

IT DOES NOT MAKE THE ‘WHH-CH’ WHIP NOISE

IT CAN LEAVE BRUISING BUT WILL NOT CUT YOUR SKIN

THIS IS A WHIP

IT DOES MAKE THE ‘WHH-CH’ WHIP NOISE

IT PROBABLY WON’T LEAVE BRUISING BUT CAN CUT YOUR SKIN

NOW GO FORTH AND WRITE ACCURATE PORN

I JUST SPAT CRANBERRY JUICE ALL OVER MY HOMEWORK AND DESK BECUASE OF THE END OF THAT.

The Choice Of Motherhood and Insidious Drug Store Signage

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:37:18 -0400

stoya:

I had the privilege of growing up with a second wave feminist/reformed hippy mother. Before I sprouted my first pubic hair she handed me a mirror and a flashlight and told me to get to know my vagina. I was raised to believe that my body was mine to share with whoever I chose, whether that was one man, a couple of women, or a whole bunch of people over the course of my life. My mom home schooled me for most of my childhood, and the parts of history that most excited her were the struggles for social change. When I was in 4th grade we drove down to Atlanta and took a tour of an old plantation. Afterwards we stood on the giant lawn and my mother’s bright green eyes turned an unsettling shade of yellow from emotional overstimulation as she educated me about the history of -isms in America and how important freedom and tolerance are.

A year or so later we found this book, ‘The Movers and Shakers,’ in a used bookstore outside of Charlotte. It was about activists in the sixties. The black cover with orange and yellow writing made the contents seem urgent but the dust and used book smell made it seem old and historical, like something important had happened in the distant past. This book prompted my mother to share her own experiences of being a young adult in the early seventies. She’d fought for civil rights, she’d celebrated when Roe vs. Wade was decided in favor of reproductive rights, and she’d been the only woman working in the engineering department at a nuclear plant when she got pregnant with me. I was ten or eleven when I first heard these stories. I thought my mom was positively ancient and I had little contact with other kids or the outside world. I believed she’d helped make the world a better place a very long time ago and thought that everyone was accepting of everyone else now. I thought that all the battles for human rights had been won already and I imagined prejudice as a relic of the past; if it still existed it must have been decaying next to a gramophone or ice box in a junkyard somewhere. I saw the effects of the sexual revolution and the right to abortion as gifts that my mother’s generation had given mine.

The first time someone tried to shame me for sexual activities, I thought they were the cultural equivalent of the missing link. It took me years to really understand that there are at least as many anti-equality, anti-sex work, anti-homosexual, and anti-all sorts of other things people in the world as there are people who think like me. Sometimes I still forget. For instance, when I said in my first article for Vice that “I’ve been pretty successful at avoiding pregnancy.” I was surprised when people assumed that meant I’d never had an abortion. What I should have said was that given the amount of sex I’ve had (and without doing the actual math) three abortions seems statistically low. In the same way I feel entitled to have the kind of sex I want to have, purchase condoms, leave the kitchen, wear shoes, and put my body through attempts to find a hormonal birth control method that works for me, I feel entitled to have an abortion when necessary. They’re a last resort and I do try to avoid them, but an abortion is still a better option in my opinion than an unwanted child. All three of my abortions were medication induced. Taking RU-486 to end a pregnancy is more painful than my worst period but less painful than a burst ovarian cyst.

Just like I prefer to avoid getting pregnant at all, I’d prefer to always catch unwanted pregnancies as early as possible and avoid the more invasive aspiration or dilation and evacuation procedures. I will take a pregnancy test if I don’t see my period for 29 days or if it’s suspiciously light. I’ve been on Loestrin 24Fe (a kind of hormonal birth control) since January 7th. I take my pill every single day between 7 and 9 am. I missed one of the placebo/iron supplement pills about a month ago and took a double dose the next day. I’ve heard that this pill occasionally causes women to stop menstruating entirely, but I haven’t seen anything resembling full-on menstruation for a suspiciously long time and I have actually taken pregnancy tests when I haven’t even touched a penis for months just to see the little minus sign or the “not pregnant” and be happy that there’s at least one thing that isn’t currently a problem if I’m having a bad week. So I went to the drugstore a couple of days ago and got a pregnancy test from the family planning aisle.

The phrase family planning hanging on a sign above the pregnancy tests and condoms irritates me because it implies that everyone plans to have a family at some point. As the cashier was ringing me up another woman behind the counter asked me how my day was going. I told her that I was on birth control, pointed out that I was purchasing a pregnancy test and a bottle of Aleve, and said she probably didn’t want to hear the actual answer. She chuckled awkwardly and wandered off. I usually go for EPT or Clearblue, but this time I went with First Response. When I pulled out the test and instructions, a cardboard gizmo fell out. First Response has taken the presumption that everyone wants to have a baby one step further by including a congratulatory contraption that tracks one’s due date and has a helpful form on the back for “Moments & Milestones” including possible baby names, birth time, and weight. I’d hoped that the asterisk next to “A general guide for your enjoyment.” would lead to a footnote saying “You know, if you’re interested in having a baby.” but it was a disclaimer stating that only a physician can determine due dates. I grumbled while I waited three minutes for the results and seethed when both tests came up with error messages.

Inferior products aside, the thing that makes me angry is the insidious suggestion that all women want children and the subtle shaming of people who exercise their reproductive rights. This is part of the reason women feel the need to say things like “I only had one abortion” or “a baby at that point would have ruined my college prospects.” I resent the way this sneaky societal pressure has wormed itself into my brain enough that I feel the need to explain my mild latex allergies and issues with hormonal birth control or follow the number of pregnancies I’ve terminated with a reminder of how many sexual acts I’ve engaged in when talking about my own abortions. I’m uncomfortable about the way that I’ve allowed these messages to undermine my belief in my rights enough to feel defensive about exercising them. Every time that a woman like Molly Crabapple or Chelsea G. Summers vocally stands behind their decision to abort, it’s a drop in the bucket that maintains balance against people like Todd Akin and Jack Dalrymple. It reminds me that the freedoms we do have are precarious and that a sizable chunk of America sees women, homosexuals, and anyone who is different than they are as lesser beings… and that sucks.

cherrymilkshake: nanibgal: bemusedlybespectacled: if you ever think mythology is boring or...

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:31:19 -0400

cherrymilkshake:

nanibgal:

bemusedlybespectacled:

if you ever think mythology is boring or serious business or whatever shit

just remember that cerberus, the hell-hound and guard dog of the underworld, comes from the root indo-european word ḱerberos, which evolved into the greek word kerberos, which got changed to cerberus when it went from greek to latin

ḱerberos means “spotted”

that’s right

hades, lord of the dead, literally fucking named his pet dog spot

PLEASE, SOMEONE AUTHENTICATE BECAUSE I WILL REGAIN HOPE IN HUMANITY

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Cerberus

Disputed, but possible!

robinski000: Mooore college doodles in which a recently burnt...

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:34:06 -0400

robinski000:

Mooore college doodles in which a recently burnt Elsen thinks he recognises an Elsen that has long since gone.

KEEPING CELERY AND CARROTS FRESH FOR A LONG TIME

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:21:33 -0400

fuckingrecipes:

EVER BUY A THING OF CELERY OR A BAG OF CARROTS FOR A RECIPE AND THEN ONLY END UP USING LIKE, NOT NEARLY ENOUGH OF THE VEGETABLE IN QUESTION TO JUSTIFY ACTUALLY BUYING THE WHOLE THING SO THEY JUST ROT IN YOUR FRIDGE?

CUT THAT CELERY INTO 5” STICKS WITH A BADASS KNIFE AND STAND THEM ON END IN A BOWL OF WATER IN YOUR FRIDGE! CHANGE THE WATER EVERY FEW DAYS. THEY’LL STAY CRISP AS FUCK. ONCE THE TIPS START TURNING BROWN THEY’LL BE STARTING TO ROT - SO PREPARE A VIKING FUNERAL BECAUSE THAT SHIT IS GOING TO BE NASTY.

THE CARROTS YOU CAN JUST SOAK IN WATER 24 HOURS BEFORE YOU NEED THEM AND THEY’LL BE FINE FOR CONSUMPTION.

coelasquid: chelsdamelsp: Asking the real questions Zombies...

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:30:51 -0400

coelasquid:

chelsdamelsp:

Asking the real questions

Zombies just care about the now and put all of their energy into every activity with no mind for what they might need later, normal humans subconsciously reserve energy for future bags of chips they might need to be prepared for.

Submit Anon: Surprise from Glomp-zilla

Mon, 13 May 2013 14:04:58 -0400

weebstories:

Ok, so I tried submitting before, but somehow wasn’t able to. Anyways, here’s a different story that might pass.

So this was while I was attending a convention here in the Midwest, a couple years back.
The majority of the con went very well; I dressed as Italy for the last two days, and got many praise/pictures with it. Fun time!

Until…they felt like showing up…

Read More

Honestly, Actual Real Life Glomping is dangerous enough even to people with healthy backs and sturdy constitutions that cons (or con-goers) should really start considering it assault. :/ And that’s just with a 90 lbs. kid; a lot of weeaboos/otaku weigh a lot more than that (and I know more than one person has been seriously injured by a glomp).

cracked: If a black actor is cast as The Human Torch, what’s...

Mon, 13 May 2013 13:48:01 -0400

cracked:

If a black actor is cast as The Human Torch, what’s next? Some guy not made out of rocks playing The Thing?

The 5 Most Insulting Defenses of Nerd Racism

News has broken that Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle) is being considered to play Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. Naturally, comic book fans across the Internet are furious, because they’ve had it with all the reboots and just want to preserve the magic of the 2005 original — oh, wait, no. They’re angry because Michael B. Jordan is black. And in the comics, Johnny Storm is white.

Read More

moosefeels: rebornica: I keep seeing too many people complain...

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:37:56 -0400

moosefeels:

rebornica:

I keep seeing too many people complain about having big thighs and being fat or skinny so I made these!

Encouraging Zangief!

can we just call him body positive zangief

thepeasanthotline: hitoritabi: Korean version of Western folk...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:27:38 -0400

thepeasanthotline:

hitoritabi:

Korean version of Western folk stories — Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Swan Lake, Little Red Riding Hood.

fandomsandfeminism: anoversensitivesloth: Please don’t attack me here, I’m just curious. Why do...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:23:29 -0400

fandomsandfeminism:

anoversensitivesloth:

Please don’t attack me here, I’m just curious. Why do women get offended when someone cat-calls or wolf-whistles at them? Why not just take it as a compliment?

Because it often makes them feel unsafe and de-humanized.

Think of it feel this way:

Why would women not appreciate men confronting them in a public place in order to declare how fuckable they are in an unsolicited manner?

Why, in a culture that tells women that if they let their guard down around strange men that they will be raped and it will be their fault if they are, would women not appreciate strange men commenting on their bodies in a public place, often while they are walking alone?

Why, in a society where 1/4 women will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime, would women not appreciate being told they have “nice tits!” on the street by men who are often much larger and physically stronger than they are?

Why, in a media landscape that habitually reduces women’s bodies into advertisements for beer and cars and judges women primarily by absurd and unattainable beauty standards, would a woman not appreciate being complimented solely for having a “nice ass” by a total stranger?

"In the 101 top-grossing family films…from 1990 to 2004, of the over 4,000 characters in these films,..."

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:20:11 -0400

“In the 101 top-grossing family films…from 1990 to 2004, of the over 4,000 characters in these films, 75% overall were male, 83% of characters in crowds were male, 83% of narrators were male, and 72% of speaking were male. When the American Psychological Association commented on this research, they said, ‘This gross under-representation of women or girls in films with family-friendly content reflects a missed opportunity to present a broad spectrum of girls and women in roles that are non-sexualised.’”

- Natasha Walter, Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, pages 69-70, 2010. (via bitemebeautiful)

Bringing this back as people have started reblogging this again and EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW THIS.

(via bitemebeautiful)

new-ways-to-complain: conservativegirlonpolitics: That was the...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:16:05 -0400

new-ways-to-complain:

conservativegirlonpolitics:

That was the most informative thing I have ever been told by a duck

And I have been told a lot of things by ducks.

Fairy tales are NOT all straight white heroes and women sans agency! I swear!

Mon, 13 May 2013 01:53:59 -0400

neverrwhere:

seananmcguire:

I re-blogged a picture of a little girl, dressed as Tiana, hugging the face actress who plays Tiana at one of the Disney Parks, and noted that everyone should have their princess. And a few people have now contacted me basically going “no, only straight white people can have princesses if you stick with the classics.”

Um.

No.

I am a folklorist, and it’s time for some Fun With Folklore.

First off, very few Princesses/fairy tale heroines who are going to become Princesses because that’s what you do are actually defined by specific physical attributes. You have Snow White, who yes, requires the “skin as white as snow” etc, but that’s to make her an alien beauty and justify the actions of her stepmother. She belongs to the Aarne-Thompson tale type 709, which is commonly referred to as “Snow White,” but which contains a hell of a lot more, including “Bella Venezia”, “Myrsina”, “Nourie Hadig” and “Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.” All those links will take you to Wikipedia. Click them. Note that NOT ONE of those girls is defined by her appearance, beyond “incredibly beautiful.” “Nourie Hadig” is Armenian in origin; you can bet that girl was not white as snow. (Note that I do not actually care for the “Nourie Hadig” 709 variant, due to using a Roma girl as the main adversary, but that’s another story.) Any story you want to tell is going to have variants where the heroines are never described! You know why?

BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO WERE TELLING THESE STORIES UNDERSTOOD THAT IT WAS IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN TO SEE THEMSELVES IN THE MIRROR OF THE TALE.

There are fairy tales about people with disabilities, ranging from the physical (missing limbs, missing eyes, missing tongues) to the emotional (girls who cannot smile, boys who cannot feel fear). There are fairy tales that end in same-sex marriage. There’s even an excellent fairy tale about gender identity, “The Princess Who Became A Prince,” in which our hero has always felt he was a boy, but tried to be a dutiful daughter, until a dragon stole a neighbor princess and he had to ride to rescue the girl in order to save the kingdom. One misaimed curse later, and wham, our new-minted prince is finally outwardly as he had been all along on the inside.

THIS IS JUST AS OLD AND TRUE AND SCHOLASTIC AS CINDERELLA AND THE OTHERS.

The “big fairy tales” of today are the ones that someone seized on as marketable. We have the power, as drivers of media, to say that we want more diversity. We want Princesses of every race, creed, and religion, and we have the folklore and fairy tales to make them real. We want our transgender Princess (although wow would the marketing be problematic). Saying “the classics” are 100% about straight white people reduces the past to a place where only straight whiteness existed, and where no other children ever needed stories. And that’s not what the past was.

Once upon a time has never stopped being right now.

‘Saying “the classics” are 100% about straight white people reduces the past to a place where only straight whiteness existed, and where no other children ever needed stories. And that’s not what the past was.

Once upon a time has never stopped being right now.’

THANK YOU