mymomisamango

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call me ignorant but i genuinely don’t understand why sports have to be split up by gender.

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This weekend I was schmoozing at an event when some guy asked me what kind of history I study. I said “I’m currently researching the role of gender in Jewish emigration out of the Third Reich,” and he replied “oh you just threw gender in there for fun, huh?” and shot me what he clearly thought to be a charming smile.

The reality is that most of our understandings of history revolve around what men were doing. But by paying attention to the other half of humanity our understanding of history can be radically altered.

For example, with Jewish emigration out of the Third Reich it is just kind of assumed that it was a decision made by a man, and the rest of his family just followed him out of danger. But that is completely inaccurate. Women, constrained to the private social sphere to varying extents, were the first to notice the rise in social anti-Semitism in the beginning of Hitler’s rule. They were the ones to notice their friends pulling away and their social networks coming apart. They were the first to sense the danger.

German Jewish men tended to work in industries which were historically heavily Jewish, thus keeping them from directly experiencing this “social death.” These women would warn their husbands and urge them to begin the emigration process, and often their husbands would overlook or undervalue their concerns (“you’re just being hysterical” etc). After the Nuremberg Laws were passed, and after even more so after Kristallnacht, it fell to women to free their husbands from concentration camps, to run businesses, and to wade through the emigration process.

The fact that the Nazis initially focused their efforts on Jewish men meant that it fell to Jewish women to take charge of the family and plan their escape. In one case, a woman had her husband freed from a camp (to do so, she had to present emigration papers which were not easy to procure), and casually informed him that she had arranged their transport to Shanghai. Her husband—so traumatized from the camp—made no argument. Just by looking at what women were doing, our understanding of this era of Jewish history is changed.

I have read an article arguing that the Renaissance only existed for men, and that women did not undergo this cultural change. The writings of female loyalists in the American Revolutionary period add much needed nuance to our understanding of this period. The character of Jewish liberalism in the first half of the twentieth century is a direct result of the education and socialization of Jewish women. I can give you more examples, but I think you get the point.

So, you wanna understand history? Then you gotta remember the ladies (and not just the privileged ones).

ask historicity-was-already-taken a question

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apparently, I joined this tumblr place at 05/08/2020 3:44:21 AM.

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Yes, it’ll get worse

I’m always a bit annoyed when some ecoactivists are are all “Hope! Degrowth! The planet can heal!” without giving an honest time frame for that.

Like, even if we manage to end capitalism and degrow an all of that, the CO2 that’s already in the air will continue to heat up the planet for decades and the results of that will be with us for this century at the very least.

Yes, ecosystems can heal, yes, that’s worth fighting for. But it’ll get worse before it gets better and most of us won’t be there for the good parts. You can leave that out to spread “Hope”, but all that will do is make people optimistic for a short time only for them to feel hurt and betrayed when they figure out the truth.

An worse then feeling cheated our of a bright future, people acting on this false optimistic worldview won’t build the kind of support networks that we are going to need to survive our real future. Preparing for a more ecologically unstable earth must be part of our work, even as we continue to strive for the end of capitalism an a shift to a far more sustainable way of living.

Basically, if you’re trying to boost your movement this way, your eco-activism strategy is…ehhh.. unsustainable?

[mymomisamango]

decolonizepalestine.com is an easy to navigate website run by two palestinians which breaks down common myths about palestine and provides a reading list organized by a wide variety of categories ranging from history and culture to media and censorship. it’s a good starting point to use if you want to learn more about the modern day situation in palestine and understand the truth behind myths that have been perpetuated about israel’s occupation of palestine.

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ah yes. floor. nice.

#basketball #im done #on floor

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16 year old Mikayla Miller was killed by 5 white teenagers and her body was strung from a tree. Despite this obviously being a racist, homophobic hate crime (Miller had broken up with her girlfriend a while before) the Hopkinton, MA police station refused to do a proper investigation or file a report. When Mikayla’s mom questioned the police, they threatened to release Mikayla’s sexuality to the press. 

Here is the link to a petition to get the District Attorney to look into the case:

https://secure.everyaction.com/9MnHP9OMREyLq4oeg7pH0A2

And here are some sources

Please sign and reblog so justice can be gotten for this child and her family. 

[mymomisamango]

If the police were afraid of being falsely accused of brutality, they'd be actively demanding to be filmed at all times. But they don't.

If the police didn't want to be seen as a gang, they'd be demanding the repeal of all laws against victimless actions so their only focus would be on violent criminals. But they don't.

If the police feared for their lives in every encounter with civilians, they'd do everything they could to reduce the number of encounters. For example, they'd demand the repeal of quotas, and they'd feel relieved when social workers want to take over some of those encounters. But they don't.

If the police didn't want to be judged as a group when one of them does something bad, they'd be actively and openly condemning the bad police officers and making sure everyone witnesses that. But they don't.

It's almost as if everything the police say is a lie.

[mymomisamango]

I watched Heaven Official's Blessing on Netflix and I have Some Thoughts about how they use color. Now, I haven't read/seen anything else with this story so I'm coming at this from a place of ignorance compared to most fans. This is just what I see as someone who's studied both Chinese and American film and is incredibly sleep deprived.

Xie Lian is strongly associated with the color white, which fits with his role as the "Christ figure" (imo the dude is literally the most Jesus-like Christ figure I have ever seen in media aside from the OG himself). In most western cinema, white is associated with innocence, purity, and good. However, what I find interesting is that, in Chinese cinema, white is often associated with death.

What does that mean? I don't know. I can theorize that it acts as tie-in to his death and re-birth themes and that it's a clue as to how he became a martial god in the first place, but that's only after one viewing and not knowing anything more than what I saw on Netflix.

Dude's obviously got a past. He understands complexity of morals, decisions, and character in a way that makes me think he's experienced more than his fair share of trials. Also, I don't think he would become a martial god unless he'd done or seen Some Shit. All I can say is that directly associating the Christ figure with death (not just rebirth but straight up death) is fascinating to me and I want to see where this goes.

THIS BITCH.

I have been thinking about San Lang's ties to the color red since he first appeared.

In western cinema, red is generally tied to violence, sexuality, and evil but, in (approved) Chinese cinema, red is tied to luck, vitality, and marriage. I am so fucking jazzed about this color decision. It's just compounding the general themes. Heaven sees San Lang as someone violent and evil and it warns Xie Lian about his "temptation". But, when Xie Lian interacts with San Lang, he never directly sees any of these aspects. He's aware of them, but judges San Lang's character more on what he does see: good luck, vitality, and his authenticity and support as a partner.

I just find the implications here fascinating. It seems to be saying that western culture judges what it does not understand as evil based on its own terms while, when you get down to the heart of the matter, the down-to-earth, Chinese reading of the character is more accurate to who he really is. It's portraying western culture as generally out-of-touch elites who destroy the hopes and dreams of Chinese people but particularly women (look at the wrath ghosts) and Chinese culture to be more in-touch with the average person as they've actually been through it. Geopolitically, it's partly pointing out that this entity that hasn't been through that much since its founding is telling someone who's actually been through it, suffered, and learned from the consequences how to behave "morally".

HOWEVER

When individuals from the two sides decide to humble themselves and approach the other without judgement, they exist in harmony. They acknowledge that they both have things to learn from the other. The two hierarchies still exist and nothing's perfect, but there's hope for peace because two individuals decided to make a difference.

This is just the primary color for the two main characters!

It doesn't touch on how the tone and cadence is a mixture between that of Chinese and American story-telling. It doesn't mention how San Lang utilizes white butterflies. It really doesn't touch on the very important "desert people" vs. "plains people" fight that has an interesting and nuanced take on Uyghur-Chinese politics that I'm not sure how I feel about yet (right now, it seems problematic from an outside lens but progressive from a Chinese lens). Another watch is necessary to form a more informed opinion.

Anyway, I really recommend the new Jesus/Satan fanfic on Netflix for its Chinese-American political themes.

[mymomisamango]

Warm up fox blobs. Couldn't decide if I liked it with the lineart or without anyways this took me two seconds, I'm making stickers and I'm putting san lang foxes all over my house idc.

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abab

assigned born at birth

[mymomisamango]

“even fate picks its favorites” is such a raw fucking line so it’s no surprise that it comes from the cinematic masterpiece Megamind (2010)

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currently crying over the fact that

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Farewell online privacy