many-gay-magpies

[many-gay-magpies]

watching teen wolf season 4 as a midwesterner is very bizarre because it's like, what do you MEAN you just drove to mexico over the weekend? just casually? meanwhile i've forgotten that several states in america literally share a border with mexico, california included.

#magpie thoughts #for me driving to mexico would take like. idk multiple days probably #and these guys are just driving there in like idk five hours? #magpie's teen wolf experience

[many-gay-magpies]

[many-gay-magpies]

I have found the best ally

Straight and cis people will say that they are allies, but you will NEVER measure up to my dentist.

Me: "Hey, is it ok if I can change my name on my info from [DEADNAME] to Sai?"

Random woman that I wasn't even talking to in the chair next to me: "Honey, if that's the name you had at birth, [DEADNAME] is your only name."

My dentist, very slowly turning her rolley chair towards the woman: "Shush."

Random woman: "Excuse me?"

Destist: *closes privacy curtain while staring bullets at the lady*

Me: *pissing myself laughing*

My dentist while changing my name in my info (reminder that English is not her first language, she immigrated from Russia): "There, Sai, you have pretty boy teeth. Smile and make all girls swoon."

Me not having the heart to tell her I'm not transmasc but I'm Agender, and still pissing myself laughing: "Thank you [DENTIST NAME]."

[many-gay-magpies]

If I ask nicely who will rb this telling me what is the last song u listened to 🥺

#small crimes by nïlufer yanya 💪 #binged her albums all the way home and that was the last song on the one i just finished

[many-gay-magpies]

Le Printemps (Springtime) by Eugène Bidau

#art #birbs #!!!!🤍🤍🤍!!!!

[many-gay-magpies]

great egrets kept posing for me today....❤

#EGRET #been seeing these guys all over lately #love them so much #birbs

[many-gay-magpies]

#important #thank you kermit

[many-gay-magpies]

#video #can confirm as a white person i can definitely be summoned by cheesd

[many-gay-magpies]

Laios was right - she's so cool!!

#h. hello. #dunmeshi

[many-gay-magpies]

why are french people rude?

Ah well, the safest explanation when an entire country’s people are stereotyped as rude is that they have their own culture with different criteria for politeness than the ones you are used to. It’s probably easier for Americans to forget this than for the rest of the world, because they consume less foreign media than the rest of us (from literature in translation to foreign films) and are less exposed to aspects of foreign cultures that could inform them about different norms of politeness (online interactions happen in their own language and follow their own (anglo) social codes.) With this insular worldview it’s easy to take it for granted that American good manners are universal. They are not!

A very common gripe against American tourists in Paris is that they talk so loudly in public spaces, which is definitely rude here but I assume that in the US, people just have a different threshold for what constitutes ‘loud’ (I wonder if it is due to being used to having more space than Europeans). I also remember a discussion I had with one of my translation professors about the American concept of ‘active listening’ and how negatively it is perceived in France. It may be that in the US it is polite to make ‘listening noises’ at regular intervals while someone is speaking to you, ‘uh huh’, ‘right’, ‘yeah’, ‘really?’, and that you would perceive someone who just stands there silently as disinterested or thinking about something else. In France it is more polite to shut up and listen (with the occasional nod or ‘mmh’) and it’s rather seen as annoying and rude to make a bunch of useless noise while someone is speaking.

There are of course countless examples like that. The infamous rude waiters in Parisian cafés probably seem a lot more rude and cold to people who have a different food culture… People from other cultures might consider a waiter terrible at his job if he doesn’t frequently check on them to make sure they don’t wait for anything, but the idea that a meal is a pleasant experience rather than just a way to feed yourself (esp when eating out) means we like having time to chat and just enjoy our table for a while, so we don’t mind as much waiting to order or for the next course. French people would typically hate if an overzealous waiter took the initiative to bring the note once we’re done with our meal so we don’t have to wait for it, as it would be interpreted as “you’re done, now get out of my restaurant.”

The level of formality required to be seen as polite is quite high in France, which might contribute to French people being seen as rude by people with a more casual culture. To continue with waiters, even in casual cafés they will address clients with the formal you and conversely, and won’t pretend to be your friend (the fact that we don’t have the American tip culture also means they don’t feel the need to ingratiate themselves to you.) I remember being alarmed when a waitress in New York introduced herself and asked how I was doing. “She’s giving me her first name? What… am I supposed to with it? Use it?” It gave me some insight on why Americans might consider French waiters rude or sullen! It might also be more accepted outside of France to customise your dish—my brother worked as a waiter and often had to say “That won’t be possible” about alterations to a dish that he knew wouldn’t fly with the chef, to foreign tourists who were stunned and angry to hear that, and probably brought home a negative opinion of French waiters. In France where the sentiment in most restaurants is more “respect the chef’s skill” than “the customer is king”, people are more likely to be apologetic if they ask for alterations (beyond basic stuff) as you can quickly be seen as rude, even by the people you are eating with. 

And I remember reading on a website for learning English that the polite answer to “How are you?” is “I’m fine, thank you!” because it’s rude to burden someone you aren’t close to with your problems. In my corner of the French countryside the polite thing to do is to complain about some minor trouble, because saying everything is going great is perceived negatively, as boasting, and also as a standoffish reply that kind of shuts down the conversation, while grumbling about some problem everyone can relate to will keep it going. (French people love grumbling as a positive bonding activity!)

Basically, before you settle on the conclusion that people from a different place are collectively rude, consider that if you travel there and scrupulously follow your own culture’s social code of good manners, you might be completely unaware that you are being perceived as obnoxious, rude or unfriendly yourself simply because your behaviour clashes with what is expected by locals.

#language #linguistics #<- partially. i dont have a tag for just General Culture stuff but i should #anyways this is very fascinating and will come in handy if i ever actually go to france

[many-gay-magpies]

did I ever tell yall I used to think charlie chaplin was a drag king. for like three years straight

[many-gay-magpies]

Reading a book about slavery in the middle-ages, and as the author sorts through different source materials from different eras, I am starting to understand why so many completely fantastical accounts of "faraway lands" went without as much as a shrug. The world is such a weird place that you can either refuse to believe any of it or just go "yeah that might as well happen" and carry on with your day.

There was this 10th century arab traveller who wrote into an account that the fine trade furs come from a land where the night only lasts one hour in the summer and the sun doesn't rise at all in the winter, people use dogs to travel, and where children have white hair. I don't think I'd believe something like that either if I didn't live here.

#humanity #history

[many-gay-magpies]

unfortunately no eclipse photography can ever outdo the waffle house one from 2017

#fav

[many-gay-magpies]

the most confusing part of the teen wolf fandom is seeing people insist that scott was a ‘terrible friend’ to stiles.

did they not see scott spend the entirety of season 3b prioritising stiles’ safety?

did they forget how miserable scott was when stiles was in the hospital? when he was so caught up in worry about stiles that he didn’t register kira calling to him?

or how he saw something was up with stiles and helped calm him down from a panic attack?

or when he rushed into the room the second stiles woke up to catch him before he fell, and then suggested he sit down and take it easy? how he took away his pain without even meaning to?

or, how about, when he offered to give up his chance to get to know kira and have fun at the party, in order to help stiles figure out something that was bothering him?

did they overlook all the times scott asked stiles whether he was okay?

how he noticed when stiles was feeling off? not just in 5x05, but in 2x08, 3x17, etc.

or how scott refused to accept stiles’ claim that he was “okay”, and gently held his hand and took away his pain?

did they miss the fact that the first thing scott asked about, after being tortured and almost killed by void stiles, was whether stiles was okay?

or that scott trusted stiles so much that he allowed himself to be slashed up by the oni, just because stiles said so?

i’m not going to keep going through all the examples of scott being an amazing friend, because the list is too long, but i think this gives a pretty good idea. of course, he’s not a perfect friend, but nor is stiles. and i think stiles is lucky to have a friend like scott.

#i am INSANE #teen wolf

[many-gay-magpies]

Always Sciles (insp: this post)

#AUGH. incoherent blabbering noises ensue #teen wolf #they are so precious to me

[many-gay-magpies]

“WRITE IT BADLY. Write it badly, write it badly, write it badly, write it badly. Stop what you’re doing, open a Word document, put a pencil on some paper, just get the idea out of your head. Let it be good later. Write it down now. Otherwise it will die in there.”

— Brandon Sanderson on overcoming writer’s block to create a first draft as a professional author

#important #me #writing stuff #writing help

[many-gay-magpies]

#CAPYYY #art #toh #comics