#and women who fit standard beauty conventions

[the-amber-droid-dreams]

i hate the emphasis on beauty in trans narratives. i hate that trans people are told not to transition because it'd make us ugly. i hate that transition timelines are only celebrated when the end result is some magical transformation towards conventional beauty standards

transition is not lifesaving because it makes us beautiful. we do not NEED to be beautiful. transition is lifesaving period.

#like . maybe you transition and you look not much different #or maybe you look 'worse' #it doesnt fucking matter #you dont owe anyone a thing #that includes yourself #this goes for all trans ppl btw #transfemmes who are told theyd make 'ugly women' #transmascs who are told not to betray their ~beautiful pure femininity~ #nonbinary people whos ideal selves cant fit into the conventional standards at all #and everyone in between and everyone i forgot #we. dont. owe. anyone. anything. #amber actually saying stuff

[littlegildedswallow]

radfems LOVE to use women with eating disorders as gotcha stats, but actually having compassion for ed'ed women ? ofc not.

mentally ill traumatized women acting like mentally ill traumatized women ? sacrilegious ! attention whore with a superiority complex.

#saw a prominent radfem on twt shame women for having ed related stuff in their bios while calling themselves radfems #like whoa ! radfems are not flawless and perfect ? #also i hope y'all realize there's a difference between a woman having ed related behaviors because she wants to lose weight to fit into the #conventional beauty standard vs women and girls who HAVE eating disorders #it sounds weird but i promise there's a difference #usually women with eds are.. really REALLY fucked up in the head like WAY beyond the regular “i want to be conventionally attractive and #worthy“ thing that literally all women go through #girls with eds... yeah no you could have all kinds of disordered thinking and self hatred but #you'll never understand the warped ass thinking going on in the heads of actively anorexic/bulimic/ orthorexic Ellen #*women #unless you've been there yourself #you can send me anons about our thought process and I'll be honest but i promise y'all EVERY SINGLE argument I've #seen well intentioned feminists use to fight against eds trigger us into clinging to our eds even harder #EVERY SINGLE ONE #mine

[chiroptophobiawrites]

Batboys Type Headcanons

(this is literally just a ramble)

Dick Grayson:

Tall women

People who prove they can handle themselves

Pretty people

Cheekbones probably

Kind of muscular body

Doesn’t care much about specific features but rather what it all looks like added up

Independent people

Is a clinger at first glance but actually values distance

Has probably the biggest variety type wise in that he dates very different people

Kind of nurturing people but often in a tough love kind of way

Thigh guy? unsure about him

likes a district sense of style in his partners, usually something that either keeps up with trends or is distinctly them

Jason Todd:

Butt guy, not unsure about that one (and also tummy)

Likes chubby women but also really muscular women

His preference is one of the two but he will go outside of his type

Like he has a type but he doesn’t stick to it

Cause he doesn’t actually seek out partners they just come to him

Also taller women

But then at the same time he is probably the one most likely to like a big height difference as well

so take that as you will

Likes either fighters or nerds

or both

pretty similar to Dick actually

Doesn’t care much about style in his partner, wears athletic clothes 24/7 and would take someone who does the same

Tim Drake

A mess

The one brother who (openly lol) is into guys as well

Likes people who can have a little banter with

Someone who can read him for filth i’m ngl

People around his height or a few inches in either direction

High energy people who can even be all over the place

likes people who are lowkey a stylistic mess, like they will have some cute outfits but it’s very hit or miss (usually miss)

Body type wise is not very picky but tends to attract scrawny little nerds like himself (/j)

boobs guy 10000% does not matter how much

Duke Thomas:

my lil pookie

Hips guy

Likes prominent noses

or actually prominent features in general

Is drawn to someone a bit more no none sense and serious so that he can see how long it takes for them to admit they like him

likes dark hair and especially when it’s long

Likes a sort of ‘tomboy’ clothing style

He is a true romantic and craves love at first sight

but also probably has the least hangups if his partner does not want to be married in the next 2-5 business days

Someone around his height but slightly shorter, but body type wise nothing specific

Damian Wayne (older)

unconventional but also still conventionally attractive???

Like he likes pretty people cause he likes pretty things in general

But they don’t have to fit into the conventional beauty standards, just someone who most people would be like oh wow they are pretty

people who dress alternately in some way shape or form

Legs guy def

needs frenemies to lovers, will die without it

Like he wants a best friend who he can play fight with and also tell everything and also kiss sometimes

likes body mods (piercings, tattoos, contacts, dyed hair, etc.)

either short hair or really long hair no in between

someone his height or a few inches in either direction

#batfam #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #duke thomas #damain wayne #dick grayson x reader #jason todd x reader #tim drake x reader #duke thomas x reader #damian wayne x reader #dick grayson headcanon #jason todd headcanon #tim drake headcanon #duke thomas headcanon #damian wayne headcanon #this is not really x reader but like #it can be used as such so i’ll tag it as such #this was kinda harsh idk #and also kinda short #i kinda wanna draw what i think each of their types would look like as a person ngl #i have a lot more specific things but also i was like uh lemme leave it more general if i tag it as x reader

[mooneytried]

Happy women's history month!

Lets remember and fight for all:

the women in Palestine who have no access to menstrual products/medication and have to use tent scraps.

trans women in general because i know yall love to celebrate queer women (which is great!) but almost never include trans women in your women's history month. They are women too. And they deserve to be celebrated and fought for.

Queer women because they're only acknowledged if they can be sexualized, mainly by men.

poc women who are still seen as lesser and boxed into stereotypes instead of being recognized as complex people just like anyone else.

Disabled and neurodivergent women because they often get overlooked and are never recognized as actual people.

Plus sized women (or any women who don't fit into the conventional beauty standard) because your stupid beauty standards mean NOTHING.

Women that come from different religions because if they can find peace and empowerment from their faith, then you can direct your war somewhere else.

Women who have been sa'd. They were NEVER at fault.

Don't just celebrate women who fit into your exclusive and harmful view of what a woman is supposed to be.

#mooney says something #women's history month #international women's day #sorry its just some of yall #exclude women #during women's history month too

[prussianbluevelvet]

Shoutout to ‘ugly’ trans women who feel discouraged from transitioning because most leftists only care about and support trans women when they look conventionally attractive and easy to fetishise.

Shoutout to ‘ugly’ trans women who are afraid to transition because they feel like they’re ‘not attractive enough’ to be a woman.

You are not ‘failing’ at womanhood, or being trans, because you don’t fit into conventional beauty standards. You are not ‘failing’ womanhood because you don’t look as attractive as some other trans women, and you are not ‘lesser’ than them.

Because unfortunately womanhood is directly associated with this idea that you exist to be consumed by others, that you exist to be palatable. Performing femininity can be a chore, an expensive one, that is quite inaccessible and difficult to achieve.

Expecting trans women to hyper-perform their gender roles flawlessly to be accepted is just blatant transphobia and misogyny. It’s everywhere.

So. Shoutout to ‘ugly’ trans women. I hope that one day, you will find the confidence to live happily and authentically, regardless of what cis people think. Their support should not hinge on how ‘attractive’ or ‘fuckable’ you are. We all deserve liberation.

#trans positivity #trans joy #transfem positivity #lgbt positivity #transfem #trans pride #trans woman #lgbt #queer joy

[haggishlyhagging]

"I did it for me," reads the plaque held by the woman in a Botox ad. There's a sense that she's presenting the plaque to us, the audience, and it's kind of unnerving. The makers of the ad are conversant in the basic language of both body acceptance and choice feminism, and this ad is an attempt to make an end-run around any existing skepticism about cosmetic surgery, by appealing to free, market-savvy choice and its result, empowerment. This woman who paid a tidy sum of money for a smooth forehead and nonexistent nasolabial folds is not a dupe of the patriarchy, dammit! She's not doing it for a man; she's not doing it for a woman; she's doing it for herself, and those are the magic words. Variations on “I did it for me” appear and reappear in ads for Botox and breast implants; they're present when Vogue suggests—you know, just puts it out there—that you could shorten your toes in order to better fit them into Jimmy Choos; they exist whenever morning talk-radio hosts give away free breast implants to the woman with the best small-boobs sob story. "I did it for me," "I did it to feel better about myself," and, "I'm not doing it for anyone else" are defensive reflexes that acknowledge an imagined feminist disapproval and impatiently brush it away.

It's been twenty-five years since Naomi Wolf wrote, in her bestselling book The Beauty Myth, that "The ideology of beauty is the last one remaining of the old feminine ideologies that still has the power to control those women whom second-wave feminism would have otherwise made relatively uncontrollable." For all the gains that various women's movements have made possible, rigidly prescribed, predominantly white beauty standards are one site where time has not revolutionized our thinking. Concurrently, it's also where the expansion of consumer choice has made it possible to bow to such standards in countless new ways.

Choice has become the primary way to talk about looks, a phenomenon that journalist Alex Kuczynski called "an activism of aesthetics" in her 2006 book Beauty Junkies. In the book, the cosmetic surgery industry in particular is portrayed as a kind of Thunderdome where the waiting lists for a new injectable climb into the double digits, impeccably spray-tanned celebrity doctors jostle for prime soundbite space in women's magazines, and speakers at surgeons' conventions end their speeches with a call to "Push plastic surgery." With a rise in options—more doctors, more competing pharmaceutical brands, the rise of cosmetic-surgery tourism that promises cheap procedures in tropical locations—the landscape of sculpted noses and liposuctioned abs has been defined by choice. The "activism," too, is one of individual choice—it refers to being proactive about one's own appearance, vigilant enough to be able to head off wrinkles, droops, and sags at the pass. Framed within our neoliberal discourse, an activism of aesthetics doesn't dismantle the beauty standards that telegraph worth and status, but advocates for everyone's right to purchase whatever interventions are necessary to achieve those standards. The individual world shrinks to the size of a doctor's office; other people exist only as points of physical comparison.

Though we often think of beauty and body imperatives in their prefeminist form—the hobbling footbinding, the lead whitening powders, the tapeworm diet—the ostensibly consciousness-raised decades since the 1970s have brought a mind-boggling array of dictates, standards, and trends to all genders, but most forcefully to women. When capri pants were the move of the moment in the 1990s, Vogue was there to suggest quick surgical fixes for knobby knees and undefined calves. Less than ten years later, the clavicle was the body part du jour, balancing the trend of voluminous clothing with reassuring proof that, under all that material, the wearer was appropriately thin. (One clavicle-boasting woman stated to The New York Times that the clavicle was the "easiest and least controversial expression of a kind of sex appeal"—not as obviously sexy as breasts, but evidence of a physical discipline coveted among the fashion set.) A handful of years after that, the focus moved south again, to the "thigh gap" coveted by a largely young audience, some of whom blogged about their pursuit of the gap with diet journals and process photos.

Though certain types of bodies have historically come in and out of fashion—the flapper dresses of the 1920s required a boyish, hipless figure, while the tight angora sweaters of the '50s demanded breasts, or at least the padded semblance of them—the pace with which bodies are presented as the "right" ones to have has quickened. The beachy girls-next-door of the 1970s were elbowed out by the Amazonion supermodels of the 1980s, who gave way to the heroin-chic waifs of the '90s, who were knocked off the editorial pages of the early 2000s by the Brazilian bombshells, who were then edged out by the doll-eyed British blondes. Meanwhile, the fashion industry selectively co-opts whatever "ethnic" attributes can be appropriated in the service of a trend. Black and Latina women with junk in the trunk who have been erased by mainstream glossies, overlooked as runway models, and ill-served by pants designed for comparatively fat rears were rightly annoyed to hear from Vogue, in 2014, that "We're Officially in the Era of the Big Booty" thanks to stars like Iggy Azalea, Miley Cyrus, and Kim Kardashian. There is no wrong way to have a body" wrote author and size-positive sage Hanne Blank, but that sentiment will always be contradicted by a market, and a media, that depends on people not believing it.

-Andi Zeisler, We Were Feminists Once

#andi zeisler #female beauty #performative femininity #feminism and capitalism #choice feminism

[klapollo]

This is kind of an out of nowhere observation but I watched a short video about the actress who got fancast as Rapunzel getting bullied for not being white and blonde. In the comments is the usual nonsense by fascistic Disney adults but I feel like there's an entire contingent of women online who idk didn't have their Winx Club Legally Blonde Mean Girls fandom taken seriously as kids and now think being "hyperfeminine" and a girly girl is the greatest axis of oppression. Have you ever seen these types in the "wild" or is this confined to this specific channel

oh absolutely. ive noticed a lot of people who tend to conform well to conventional beauty standards tend to get into this mindset where they stake their identity on it, and in turn every modicum of progress that aims to expand what can be considered beautiful or even just normal feels like an existential threat. i'm sure it's always existed in some capacity -- people who benefit from unearned privilege tend to resist equity, i don't need to explain that part -- but i feel like this unique manifestation vis a vis "lookism" as it were is pretty strong lately

ive posted about this before but as someone who's been deeply subjected to pro-ana communities and their adjacent orbits (coquettes, girlbloggers, gymbros and so on) ive seen lots of people get bent out of shape over things like victoria's secret casting fat models, seeing plus sizes mannequins in store windows, seeing fat people get deals with trendy brands. they feel as if their appearance is this inherent quality of their Self, and on top of that a virtue that they worked toward rather than (more often than not) a result of a myriad of factors, many of which have little to do with their lifestyle efforts. in turn, a lot of these same people who identify with traditional gender roles (as a lot of these groups often do but you see plenty of people outside of them who do this shit, like tradwives) perceive any expansion of social roles as a direct attack on them. their conformity is valuable to them, it gives them esteem and access in society. whether they realize it or not, any perceived threat to that elevation is a problem of the highest order. expansion is persecution. whether or not they truly believe that or just use it as a talking point is something only they know.

and again i would find this sad if they didnt use it to hurt others. like, your sense of self should go beyond how well you fit narrow beauty standards or the size of your waist or people who Arent Like You being considered lesser. it just sounds like a miserable way to live

[dairy-farmer]

insecure of his own body!tim / i'll show you how pretty you are!bruce

!!!!!!!!!i love the idea that all capes are sort of like...outliers.

like if anyone stops for a moment and thinks about it, basically every single one of them is like...unfairly attractive. because-charisma and abilities aside- all capes are sort of weirdly more attractive than the average person. like it's a thing with them, of course they're all super fit because that's part of the job and everything but that also brings up another paint and it's that, for capes, there's also a kind of 'beauty standard' within the community and that's more centered around like...physical ability and strength. sure for the general public, they idolize conventional beauty stuff in men and women and ALL capes fall under conventional beauty (like...a solid number of them are LITERALLY models in their free time/their civilian lives) but in the caped community the people who are typically considered the most attractive are like the superpowered and super strong or combat-centered capes. and on that note, even capes who don't physically throw a punch are all kind of weirdly...muscularly built. like you wouldn't catch constantine sprinting anywhere unless he's literally about to die. plus he smokes like a chimney and he drinks alcohol to the point that ethanol is probably 40% of his blood (you'd probably get drunk if you got a blood transfusion from him). and yet...constantine is like...built....he has like...abs and stuff...

so like all capes are sort of this muscley group and THAT is what is attractive and...that's not to say that tim isn't but...his strengths clearly do not lie in fighting. he can hold his own, sure, and he's more muscular than the average person...but he's...small. tim is small and there's no other way of phrasing it. he's short and he's thin and he's not quite the same quality of hero as his brothers or his dad or his friends. and...tim tries not to let it get to him. but having muscles as big as his head and towering heights shoved in his face every day it gets kind of...hard to not feel bad about himself. its such a stupid thing to be insecure about because he's a force to be reckoned with all by himself. people pee themselves when they find out red robin is going to be interrogating them instead of batman because tim can't dangle people over the edges of buildings so he needs to use more...psychological tactics and play on people's superstitious fears so tim's interrogations tend to be a lot more terrifying.

and yet...

the only way tim confesses all these thoughts and feelings is when bruce forces him. he's holding tim close and they're naked and tim is red down to his toes as he keeps pushing away bruce's hands and fingers from his cunt and trying to hide his body from view while bruce tells him that he wants to see him, that he's been haunted by dreams of tim's beautiful body for years and he wants to see, wants to look, wants to touch....

tim doesn't quite believe everything bruce is saying but he seems particularly determined to prove to tim that he finds him pretty.

#answered asks #asks #anonymous #brutim

[biggestthighestgeminiest]

Here are my combined thoughts about Barbie (2023) as I saw it on the 18th and have had more time to think abt it.

Some good, some bad - overall I very much enjoyed it, laughed my ass off, cried quite a bit, was enthralled by the set and costume design, but left feeling like some things were off and perhaps not accomplished in the best way. This will all be delivered in bullet points in a very chaotic and random way and is NOT ordered in importance omg. Anyways i love media analysis and I will probably not explain this in the best way but HERE WE GO

the casting was fantastic, everyone read the assignment and lived their campiest life, margot robbie was phenomenal and ryan gosling absolutely killed me with laughter, glorious glorious

set design, costume, props,, perfection when it comes to bringing the mattel products to life. bangin'

i had that stupid fucking dog that eats and shits. i lost my mind when he came on hsdgkhakh

the message of barbie being representative of all little girls is still very lost on me. the idea brought up when barbie speaks to the teens, where they tell her that she gave them unrealistic body standards- well this never really gets resolved at all. Yes there was a diverse range of Barbies but they were all still beautiful in a conventional way that adheres to western beauty ideals. every barbie has perfect hair and skin and clothes even by the end of the movie. and yes i guess barbie is supposed to be this "above everything else" sort of divine feminine beauty but is still not representative of most young girls. as hilarious as the line narrator's line about margot robbie is, it sort of knows itself, that it is showing us the most perfect looking women, but doesn't address it at all beyond a simple joke. honestly what will mattel do beyond this? i imagine people will be more than happy with this movie so they won't have to make any big changes. i mean their "curvy" fashionista isn't close to being fat, and i don't believe they will ever make a barbie that isn't conventionally beautiful... so this movie just sort of gets to say it's about accepting yourself without actual real-life substance if that makes sense? it reminds me of that cartoon of all those diverse yet conventionally attractive models, with diverse people who don't fit those standards standing outside that box looking angrily. what's the point of the film at the end of the day when not addressing all those people left out of the conversation? also made me annoyed that cellulite was still the big thing that barbie was concerned about, like really?? it's a bad example as people are coming to embrace cellulite and it's also relatively easy to hide, i don't think they would have margot robbie have like, idk, dark under eye circles or a double chin,, idk someone say this better than me but the cellulite thing annoyed me (as someone who has loads of it!!)

the plot was BONKERS and i for one don't really care about plot holes or cartoon logic. there were some things that made me overthink about barbie lore and then i thought to myself that it doesn't really matter. the campiness of it is more important. im sure it will deter some people but again i dont mind it being silly in that way as long as it delivers on its messages and themes, which it does to a certain extent

absolutely lost it at the you are kenough shirt, ljadhkglkhd

as i said in a previous post i predicted that it was going to be the mom who was paired with barbie. i loved the idea sm and it was very heartwarming

i CRIED when barbie first sat down and watched the humans around her living their life, she was so overwhelmed by so many emotions and it was such a simple moment of show-dont-tell and man did i weep :))

i LOVED the ken bits and i did feel as though there was a bit too much ken. especially at the end. but at the same time i loved the dance sequence. its hard loving it so much yet wanting it not to have been to prevalent. i felt like it took away from the barbies a bit which goes against the whole point of the movie????

um the barbie's plans of distracting the kens was... i guess reminiscent of all these spy or superhero movies where women use their beguiling nature against men to get the upper hand? like i am woman so i will flirt with man to distract while my team escapes and hooho it works :)) it was slightly different and not overly sexy or about flirting but it still had the same undertone. like really? the best way to get the other barbies out was to continue to conform to patriarchal standards and pump the ken's egos? surely there's a better way? yes the kens are idiots and turning them against each other works but it still felt a bit icky. i guess i just find this trope annoying being like... ok i am being taken advantage of men so i will USE the thing they oppress me for against them,, idk surely surely there's another way.

also America's character's plan of kidnapping the barbies and ... using very true and very valuable feminist lines to snap them out of it felt... weird? like what she was saying was 100% true but taking them out of context and almost using them as one liners made them feel less serious???? like making women "wake up" by just telling them about how the patriarchy takes advantage of them is just... idk. like in real life women who are indoctrinated and truly believe misogynistic things won't just wake up by being told such a line. and i know the barbies are brainwashed to forget their powerful feminist backgrounds so it's not entirely comparable to the women i just mentioned but... idk it felt disingenuous. i did laugh my ass off at the guitar scene but it still had that ickiness attached like..

i would watch this movie again, no doubt about it and i will definitely pick up on new things and easter eggs etc

mattel's board did make me laugh, perfectly casted and performed but again- mattel has its name on this. they know what they are doing. they know we will love this movie and not demand any change. it will still be full of men controlling the output of production. it will still put out products that don't reflect all young people's desires. it will still make products that uphold current societal norms. so having these buffoons in the board meeting just gets soured a bit when knowing these people will still be in power in real life....

the ruth bit made me cry and no i do not care that her ghost is just around. i loved it

the marketing team knows exactly what they are doing. the huge push of promotion made me gobble up all their interviews and im sure people will be buying all the barbie products. i am yet another victim of capitalism and i will thank them for it when i inevitably buy their you are kenough sweater

again i loved this movie despite all the bad things abt it. i love being critical of the wider impact of this movie while still enoying it as a piece of media and entertainment. i needed this movie and fuck it i want to go to barbieland so bad. i know i shouldnt. i love ken and think about ken more than i do barbie which is fucked up but the movie also played into it in a way,, as described before. i mean even ryan gosling being so iconic in all the interviews is adding into this lol. how many people are posting videos of him vs videos of the actresses i wonder.

also cockring ken. BUT HE WASNT WEARING THE COCKRING SO WHATS THE POINT EVEN???

the narrator was an interesting choice, personally wasn't a huge fan of it but it did somewhat fit with the rest of the cinematic language of the story so i can't say much about it

mattel knows exactly what its doing with putting its name on this movie. i think greta did a great job despite the constraints that mattel probably put on her,, it's hard to tell if the flaws of the movie come from the corporation's infuence or from the writer and director's creative decisions, most likely it's a combo of both. again i believe that the actors and designers and production team did a fantastic job with what they had, they committed to the bit. i would have loved for the movie to have been better, but it is still a great film in my book. as said before i would watch it again and would still enjoy it despite the flaws. the himbo part of my brain can shake hands with the media literacy one and emerge with an overall positive experience, yet PLEASE do not think this is the ultimate feminist movie, it is a step in the right direction, it could have been better, and i understand if you don't like it at all. but also i dont think it would be right to blindingly love it and call it perfect bc it's not.

#barbie spoilers #barbie #that being said i still wore pink and fairy wing shoes to the movie #and sang i'm just ken to myself #pls feel free to share your own opinions #and again i believe someone else will probably express this in a better way than me #intersectionality is definitely important here too #i do not have the best formulated arguments for it tho #so i hope people contribute to the wider discussion!! #watch the movie! and form your opinions! and discuss! wee #barbie 2023 #the barbie movie #i will probably regret posting this

[akajustmerry]

Zendaya is ethnically ambigious tho? She like Rashida Jones. That ambiguity is half the reason she's been able to push through barriers and break into the mainstream. When i think of all of the popular, young mixed/black and white women like Storm reid, Yara Shahidi, Taylor Russell, Amandla Stenberg etc - Zendaya is really the only one that looks racially ambigious. If her racial background was unknown she could get roles convincingly playing women of other racial backgrounds. But then again, with straight hair, so could Taylor russell and someone like Doja cat. genetics are a funny thing. i don't this comment has been taken with offense unless that was the intention or the actress is offended by it

yeah no this is the point I was trying to make with my post and you've proved my point which was that you have to be actively ignorant of entire cultural contexts to claim someone is "ethnically ambiguous." you're claiming she could play ppl of other races as if ppl of these other races have the same level of forced ignorance. to even claim someone is ethnically ambiguous is to flatten the diversity of the world into a lowest common denominator and then assume that EVERYONE is also participating in that same reductive act. Actors like Zendaya, Oscar Isaac, etc aren't actually "ethnically ambiguous" at all, they just don't fit into stereotypical ideas of what their ethnicities look like and thanks to systemic colourism and featurism this means they're allowed more success than those who are viewed as having less proximity to whiteness. Because in my experience what ethnically ambiguous ACTUALLY means in Hollywood is that "you're a person of colour with enough proximity to whiteness and conventional attractiveness that white audiences will like you" it has very little to do with whether any of these people can pass as other races because trust me most of them, including Zendaya, could not. The whole concept of ethnic ambiguity, at least as it is perceived in Hollywood, is just the act of measuring people of colour/how they look against whiteness and keeping whiteness at the centre of beauty standards. Maybe we just agree to disagree but I don't reckon anyone you've described could "convincingly" play people of other bgs at all, sorry.

#anon

[starres-stuff]

FFXIV Writes 2023 | Day 2 | Bark

“Dimitri over here!” A voice called across the vast room that they were called to in Camp Broken Glass. It was no more than four bells in the morning, perhaps five at this point it was difficult to tell in the snow-white hellscape the Sharlyan now stood in his crimson curls whipping against his face from the bitter wind that blew from every direction despite the fur hat he had been issued on arrival. How life even existed here was beyond him. The snow was beautiful but it felt like a tomb, a proper analogy to seeing the conditions they had arrived at.

“Hey, Jienuex snap out of it!” The voice called again “I think we are going to have to defrost his brain, Azane. He looks as if he has already lost all ability to function in this weather.” Dimitri knew that voice, despite the fact he did feel like he was lost in a trance, what dragged him out of it, however, was a warm giggle that came in the same direction. Ah, Azane, the woman who had turned him down more times than he could remember. She never had a reason for it, only that they would never work out. One of many heartaches of his youth and to this day she still had the power to move him from his thoughts.

“I was thinking!” He called out in reply, as he started across the creaky wooden floor towards the other side of the room where the Brother and Sister stood wrapped in large coats and hats like his with pink cheeks and noses sticking out to interrupt the bleakness of this day with familiarity.

“Do not do that! You know what happens when you think too many things catch on fire.” It was a third voice that was all too familiar to him and off to the side his eyes cast where he found the dark brown eyes of Weland, the man who had won Azane’s heart, the one man in all of Sharlayan that Dimitri might have actually been jealous of.

“Here I have a cup of coffee Dimitri, it tastes very strange. I don’t think I’ve ever had a cup like this before. It is oily and very bitter.” Saewara, her name sprung to his mind as soon as he heard her voice. A talented alchemist and the product of an affair between a member of the Forum and his Thavnarian maid. She was a beautiful woman and like many beautiful women he knew she was very invested in other beautiful women. She had been his best friend as long as he could remember and he made a beeline for her side and the cup of coffee she offered him.

“So they drafted us all for this little soiree into Goodwill Ambassador.” He said in a hushed voice, not wanting to draw the attention of anyone else in the room, but at the same time tilting his head to listen to the various dialects of Common tongue and regional languages that drifted around him. He could understand each of them, something he didn’t often admit to and while it could become overwhelming in a room this size it was one of the easiest ways to to learn about others and quickly. In this room, there was a lot of concern for the Citizens and a lot of anger about even being here when all the Garleans had done was destroy lives across the Star.

“Wait till you see her Dimitri.” Saewara whispered “I think she is one of the Commanders here. Her name I’ve heard is Lucia Junius. She comes from Ishgard but she is not by any means an Elezen.” Leave it to his friend to key in on the most powerful woman in a room she had a knack for it and it also came with the price of listening to her prattle on for days and nights about how lovely said woman was. “Mm, yes I had read about her in the dossier I was given in Ala Mhigo. I believe her to be Garlean in fact her last name fits the Empire’s naming conventions. There is another who seems to be in charge here, Maxima Priscus, also Garlean. They may come from a defected unit or even defected on their own due to the standards that the Empire has held for the last oh forty cycles or so.” Sipping the coffee which he found to match Saewara’s description precisely he wrapped an arm around the shorter woman and drew her in to help keep them both warm against the elements, which brought a smile to her face.

“It is scary here Dimitri.” She would murmur “Last night when we first arrived, we were in the caravan about two bells ahead of you I think. The camp was filled with non-stop barking. At first, we thought it was just a single dog but Zehex caught sight of an entire pack roaming just on the outskirts of the camp. There are a lot of guards here but really I just want to go home. I haven’t been to sleep since yesterday. When I tried I kept waking up from a nightmare that the dogs were chasing me through the snow! I would slip and then.” Saewara stopped speaking and sniffled softly before she whispered “Before I woke up all I saw was a puddle of blood on the ground and all of us but you lying near it. Did you know I am scared of barking?”

“I am used to it,” Dimitri replied calmly, giving the woman a tight side hug to remind her she had support here. What he did not say was that her dream had concerned him. He had spent the last ten cycles at least researching and studying occult-based knowledge. In fact when he was finally accepted to the Studium that had been his major. “Dogs have a sense you could say. My sister's dog, Dolly, tends to bark when she feels something is not right. They are protective creatures after all Sae, and some believe that they are able to sense spirits around them. We have come into a grave situation, I have not heard a death count as of yet but I am certain parts of the City are the final resting place for many. I could see the smoke rising around the capital on the road here. I am sure they are scared just like we are. Many of them lost their owners in this tragedy.”

He had barely said his thoughts when he heard for himself what Saewara and the others had heard before he arrived. First, it was the baying of a hound, the distinct mournful wail caught his attention with little effort, he had always felt they were the Sirens of the dead the way their voices sounded but soon it was not the only call into the night as other barks joined with theirs until it sounded like the camp was surrounded by multiple packs of canines who had found them as the most stable and safe place in the area. In truth, it made the Sharlayan shiver and hold his friend closer for it was such an eerie sound.

“I think they are lonely,” Azane said from the other side of him. In his conversation with Saewarya, the others had moved in towards them creating a little pocket of warmth. Good thing they were used to being close together like this or it would have been an awkward thing. “I want to cry listening to them. I wonder if there is any plan to take them food or at least water.” She stopped there, turned, and then buried her face into Weland’s chest before she said too much and lost control of her emotions in public. After all, Sharlayans were always serene and poised. That is what they had been taught since they were children.

“Hopefully the meeting starts soon.” Dimitri would finally say trying to distract himself and his friend from the barking. It was such a lonely sound but it almost made sense in the canvas of snow for it to exist but that didn’t make it right or better in any way.

“I would like to hear a status report on the Tempered.” he continued on “Father was certain that was where I would end up assisting with my occult knowledge. It is still strange that they are tempered. to me. It is well known that the Garleans struggle with Aether and I had always had the mind that they would be the last that could be Tempered. They also share the lack of dedication to the Twelve that we have. It does present quite an interesting topic of discussion about tempering if what I have heard is true.” By the time he finished speaking, two figures stood at the center table with a map they had spread open and the room had begun to quiet. This included his friends. The only sound that remained now besides muffled voices here and there was the baying of that hound he had heard and the barks that would reply back in the distance.

#ffxivwrite2023 #ffxiv rp #my oc #my writing #dimitri stories #endwalker spoilers #garlemald #sharlayan

[algolagniaa]

🔥 Fae, beauty, ballet, an author/book, dolls, or magic

most unpopular opinion about the fae is that they exist lmao. among those who have seen them…… my unpopular opinion is that they’re unfathomably horrible and I love them deeply. most people only agree with one half of that or the other.

people (well, women. idc abt men) who fit conventional beauty standards are genuinely really pretty to look at but in a really sexless way. I can’t be attracted to someone who looks like she walked off a magazine cover bc she doesn’t look like she knows how to fuck. and I think most people agree with me but don’t realize it bc they’ve been brainwashed

ballet gets a bad rap for encouraging eating disorders and unhealthy body image but tbh I think it’s for a reason. I have p thick thighs and it’s actually harder for me to do some of the techniques correctly because of it

interview with the vampire is the best vampire chronicles book. Lestat is undeniably the best character and the vampire lestat + queen of the damned are very fun but interview is an actual modern classic. also Brandon Sanderson sucks shit

I like when dolls have tinsel in their hair and idc if it makes the hair harder to style

magic is (for the most part) a lot less flashy and more commonplace than people think it is. most people do some kind of low level magic every day without thinking about it. magic is just energy and it’s impossible to completely stop putting your energy into the world. we’re taught that it’s this big flashy inaccessible thing though. and everything in the world is designed to cut us off from our most magical states of being. and that is 100% by design to keep us from realizing our full potential and keep power with those who most want to use it for evil. it’s an open secret that the FBI employs astrologers

#this was the girliest ask ever lol thank you

[emotionsandphenomena]

the official Bowie emotionsandphenomena Ali hazelwood universe fancasting

not including the novellas bc who cares

love hypothesis : charles melton as adam, daisy edgar jones as olive. yes I do think it's funny to cast another daisy as olive

love on the brain : dev patel as levi, zoey deutsch as bee. [insane wish fulfillment dot jpeg]

love hypothesis : elizabeth debicki as jack, aidy bryant as elsie. where in this book does it say Jack is not a lesbian. tell me

check & mate : jacob elordi as nolan, kathryn newton as mallory. listen you gotta feed the masses sometimes

taking some liberties here often, namely that the love interest actors are not as built as they're written to be. well I'm gonna interpret all that as they would be as fit as your average conventional beauty standards celebrity. as generous as I'm willing to be. they can all be tall tho I'm not a monster. and of course the girlies are mostly just women I have big crushes on. easy peezy.

#scrolling through tall men list on imdb realizing that adam driver does have something specific to him that is hard to replicate #elordi comes close. otherwise i gave up and was like well i think they should be hot #AHU

[rollercoasterwords]

fancasts + the prettification of queerness

hello tumblr this is gonna be another essay that nobody asked for but this post got me thinking thoughts and my go-to person to rant to is my aroace sister who literally cannot understand or relate to what i'm talking abt when i get into this stuff so. here i am <3 i'll put it under a cut tho

ANYWAY as i've gotten deeper and deeper into the marauders fandom over the past year i have of course seen hundreds of tiktok edits + pictures + artwork + discourse about fancasts/faceclaims and the ways different people picture the marauders. and this is not me trying to put anyone on blast or make any kind of moral judgment about the way other people visualize these characters; i honestly don't really care much how somebody else pictures a fictional character. BUT i have felt an odd sort of disconnect from the way i see many people imagining these characters, and i wanted to talk about why + where i think that might come from -- i'm gonna focus specifically on the girls here, because i'm a lesbian and this is just where i notice it most.

essentially, the disconnect that i have with most of the visual portrayals of these characters is just...they are all pretty. they are all so palatably pretty. they are all so pretty in the same way; they are almost always skinny, and long-haired, and pixie-faced and feminine and boring. like jesus christ, they are all pretty and it is so fucking boring.

and i think this is just a topic i've been thinking about more and more lately, but like...being queer does not automatically undo the years and years of socialization when it comes to cishet beauty standards. like we are all taught to think of beauty in strict standards that are deeply rooted in white supremacy, in classism, in cisness, in heterosexuality. and it creates this beauty standard that is so cookie-cutter and just demands the replication of the same features over and over again and...idk. it's just been making me reflect a lot on my own experience with queer attraction + desire.

like, growing up and undergoing this intense cishet socialization when it came to beauty standards alienated me in many ways from like...a genuine understanding of my own attraction. because i never experienced attraction the way i was told i was supposed to, and so when i tried to be attracted to things i was supposed to be attracted to, it just felt very plastic. it felt like i was watching myself as a spectator, thinking, would this look good in a video? would this look good in a picture? would this look good on a screen? and thinking that's what i was supposed to be attracted to.

and then once i began to embrace my queerness, there was still a lonnnnnngggg process of slowly, slowly unpicking those beauty standards (which i continue to do today; it's not a process that ever really ends). and so when i first started embracing attraction to women, specifically, it was still very much rooted in these cishet beauty standards. it was still centered around what was "conventional." and it was still disconnected from what was actually attractive to me.

the more comfortable i've gotten with my own queerness, the more i've reconnected with my own queer desire + my own queer experiences with attraction, the more alienated i've felt from the way that so many people around me discuss and think about attraction. like...there is just so much about conventional beauty standards that isn't fucking attractive. and it's like. idk. it's just weird!! it's weird to find things attractive when so many people around me think those things are weird or gross or icky.

like, ok. here's an example, right? orange is the new black. it was super popular while i was in high school, and i remember the craze surrounding ruby rose when they were cast. like everyone was going on and on about how attractive this person was. and it was no big deal to be like "omg yes ruby rose" bc in many ways they fit conventional beauty standards. like obviously they were gnc, obviously they were kinda butch, but they were still white, and skinny, and just...pretty, y'know?

now, big boo? completely different story. another butch lesbian, right, but people very much treated her character as like...ugly gross dyke. for general audiences, it was unfathomable that someone like big boo would actually, genuinely, be seen as attractive. because she was fat. and she wasn't pretty. and she didn't check enough of the conventional beauty standard boxes to make her palatable to straight audiences.

and this is something that i feel like happens so often with lesbians, specifically. it's all palatable and fine as long as the women are conventionally attractive, but people will react with such visceral disgust the second that these strict beauty standards aren't met. and i mean visceral disgust. people hate ugly lesbians in a way that is rarely questioned, because it's easy to laugh at the stereotype of the fat ugly dyke. and i just...idk. it makes me feel like i'm living on another planet sometimes. because fat ugly dykes are literally some of the sexiest people alive to me, so...???

anyway, i didn't really set out with this to make a point or come to a conclusion; i just wanted to ramble and write out my thoughts. but...yeah. i think this is just a little bit of a disconnect that i have with much of the marauders fandom in the ways that we visualize characters. because for me, my involvement in this space is centered very much around connecting with queerness + celebrating queer desire + attraction. and so...idk. i'm sick of pretty people i guess lol. and it's not like this is anyone's fault, but i do think it would be cool to see a bit more conversation around the ways that conventional beauty standards are so often rooted in systems of oppression, and also are so often removed from like...actual attraction.

in conclusion: i love ugly dykes!! i love fat dykes and hairy dykes and butch dykes and gnc dykes and i would love to see them celebrated more bc unpicking ingrained cishet beauty standards is so beautiful and so freeing and...yeah. i love attraction that falls outside the boundaries of cishet understanding <3

#literally so long and mostly just me rambling for no reason #just been thinking about beauty standards and attraction a lot lately!!! #it is genuinely just a weird experience to see sooooo many people fancasting these marauders girlies so that they all look pretty #in the exact same ways #and then being like ugh yes i'm so attracted to her <3 #like are you??? #are you really??? #i know she's nice to look at but what about her is....attractive? #txt #ranting and raving

[veronicathegoddess]

Unless you're really hot, you shouldn't be concerned with looks and just take what you can get. Hot girls deserve hot guys.

this is some fucked up misogynistic incel bullshit and ngl i'm too tired to address this shit so all i'll say is people, no matter if they don't fit the conventional standard or your personal standard for beauty, deserve to date people that they're attracted to.

your beauty does not and should never define the love you deserve, the person you deserve or the relationship you deserve.

(ps considering that more men are single than women because women aren't dating them, i think it's fair to say that the only who have to take what they get is men)

#ask answered

[confessions-official]

i dont even know how but conventional beauty standards have been so ingrained in me that i struggle to find reasons anyone would be attracted to me. ive ended up in some nsfw communities where fatness is considered attractive without necessarily being fetishized and its helped a lot, but i cant help feeling like im some exception to that. bigger bodies are attractive, unless its mine

i cant wrap my head around the idea that my body would ever be something desirable, that someone could want someone who isnt skinny with fat in "the right places." i dont want a partner who says my weight doesnt matter, i dont want to feel like my body is just a compromise. i want someone who is actually attracted to me and my body the way it is

at this point, im not sure if i want to lose weight for my own satisfaction or if its only because i feel like i have to fit in with what beauty standards say is attractive to be worthy of love and intimacy. would i be less insecure if society was more accepting of women who arent thin with big boobs? i wish i knew

.

#confession