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snowsinterlude · 4 months

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🪻 - violet roses and bleeding hearts.

(incel coriolanus snow x reader)

summary: no one knew how sweet your boyfriend could be. even if he was a raging misogynistic incel.

based on this ask !

c.w: incel coriolanus, mentions to misoginy, fluff, short fic, coryo being a sweetheart (most parts), couple content, some slight mentions to sex, slight punching

whilst everyone asked you why you were with coriolanus snow, the biggest incel of the academy and also one of the smartest and prettiest nerds, you knew you had him on the palm of your hand.

he was a terrible person towards woman, of course. he always had something to say towards others but never towards you. no, no.

you were his muse. his goddess. it is safe to say that he adored you, loved you so much it was a joke. it seemed fun to you that you both started talking because of an argument about clothes and the way femininity should be performed.

of course, it didn't end very well, you punched him in the face after he said something about traditional woman and that punch was enough for him to be head over heels to you. acting like a puppy with you and an angry pitbull towards others. he never thought much abbout others, but you? ma'am, ever since that punch, you had him on your bare feet.

he was a virgin mess before you met him, and he still is a mess but a more controled one- at least with you.

he knows his way with words. and acts! he loves giving you roses and huge bouquets of his grandma'am white roses, however, when he thought it was too much white, he turned to the one thing he knew you loved:

violet roses and bleeding hearts.

"y/n," he called you, voice a bit hitched from his excitement. it's been days since he wanted to see you, and he looked like a lost puppy without you around. however, he looked at your clothes up and down, the big hoodie and the sweatpants calling his attention as he frowned a bit and gulped down.

you noticed that, anyway. "what is it, coryo? is there something wrong with my clothes?" you asked.

obviously, he was ready to answer that question. he was always ready to make a really sweet comment or a really rude one. you knew him. always getting into people's weardrobe as if he has a full one.

"aren't those clothes a bit masculine, my love?" he asked, brows still knitted together. very cute for him.

"i don't think so, they're so comfortable." you said, comforting yourself into the hoodie and smelling it's perfume.

"okay, you're right, love. as always" he said, praying internally that this wouldn't be the outfit you were going to use for you both to go out.

it was worse. but at least it was something a girl would use.

your dress was quite short. white, above the knee, tight, hugging every curve you had while your hair was turned in a bun, high on your neck. pretty. somehow, erotic.

"th...that's..." he stared at you, up and down and down and up all over.

"yes? what is it now?" you asked, hand on your waist as you waited for whatever he had to say.

your sweet boyfriend, who always had something to say about women's clothing, was staring at your body the hole time. he was a bit jealous, he didn’t want to let anyone see you.

"babe, what if we stay here?" he asked, hands on your waist. you weren't against that idea, but you were ready now and didn't had the means, needs or will to go back. "i'll be a good boy, please. let's just stay home."

god he was so cute calling himself a good boy- needless to say he wasn't a good boy.

he was already there, bouquet in front of his body.

"bleeding hearts," you beamed, smiling. "my favorite ones."

"yes, yes. brought them yesterday" he said, kissing your temple. "now, can we j-just.. stay at home?"

"why?"

"you're too pretty. i don't want others to see you dressed like that."

"like that..?"

"like that, yeah. like... i don't know?" he seemed to think for a long time, but he still didn’t had anything to say "like a..."

"like a slut?"

"yeah- wait, no. stop." you laughed, letting him frown and hugging him. "we'll talk about it later, babe. let's stay at home ok?"

"okay" he was more than happy to obey, kissing your lips and laying his head on your lap.

he was yours, in a way that nobody knew. nobody suspected that this boy was so weak for you, especially with the atrocities he spoke. still, he was yours. entirely yours.

#young coriolanus snow #coriolanus snow x reader #the hunger games the ballad of songbirds & snakes #young president snow #coriolanus snow fanfiction #coriolanus snow imagine #coriolanus x reader #coriolanus x you #x reader

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billdecker · 7 months

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So it's after 6am and I've had barely any sleep because my mind is racing so here's why my party went to shit. Hopefully getting this out somewhere will make me feel better. I'm sorry this is so long.

It started off feeling a bit ahhhh because my dress was a scratchy sensory nightmare. I also wore make-up. I never wear make-up because I hate how it feels on my skin so I was already feeling a bit horrible. So i changed out of my dress and felt a bit better.

Also, I invited my sister and she never showed up. I asked her to just pop in for an hour because she deserves a break (my eldest niece is going through some terrible puberty emotional stuff; been expelled from school; sister has a very misogynistic bf who does nothing to help her in the house so she's balancing everything and close to breakdown herself). So I felt upset about that but got over it and I completely understood why. It's a good job she didn't come along after all.

Things changed when alcohol happened (obvs). We had a couple of drinks and were singing along to some angry 90s girly pop and I felt really happy. I decided I didn't want any more drink for a while which BFF didn't like and kept trying to pressure me to drink more. I think that's when I started to kinda disconnect??

Anyway, she then spent wayyyyy over an hour (probably two hours tbh) just talking to my husband about her boyfriend. Telling D her bf's entire life story including really intimate details. Her bf is a musician in his spare time and he's currently working on an album. She wanted to end my playlist so we could listen to his youtube back catalogue of black metal songs. D is an expert on dealing with people who have drunk a lot (sadly; his dad was an alcoholic) so he was kinda handling all of this while I was sitting there feeling like a billy no mates at my own party. Honestly, she didn't look at me once. I'm sitting on the other settee on the other side of the room like that fucking John Travolta staring around meme.

Then when she did involve me (like, over an hour later) she starts comments about mine and D's intimate life and she's showing me all of these photos she's taken of me and saying how sexy I look in them all and I have to change them to my profile pic. I did not look great in them. I hated every single photo. Then she grabs the glowstick dick (this is a long story, it's a tradition that we make a dick out of glowsticks when we meet up) and starts rubbing it against me telling me to do stuff to the dick and pretend it's D, and if I don't wanna pretend it's D then pretend it's a couple of the men I've talked to online. I used to chat to blokes online for a bit of fun. D knew about it and never had a problem with it. It was all consensual fun stuff. I told her in confidence and didn't expect it to be brought up. I was just slowly feeling humiliated. By this point she's drunk a bottle and a half of rum (I KNOW. I only got the second bottle in bc I'd had the first for a while, sealed, but was worried about it) and I've had three drinks that I've slowly sipped over five or so hours so I'm still very sober. But I could feel myself spiralling. Like, my social battery is running out and I can't socially mask any longer so I said I was going to sit in the bedroom for five minutes because it's cooler and I'm gonna take off my make-up.

And I knew right then I just won't be able to go for the tattoo on Thursday. I don't have enough social energy left to do it. My mood has only started to get better after getting pierced. I know my own limits and I know I can't do it. Thankfully my other BFF is on the other end of Whatsapp. She's wise and really helps me to put things in a logic way when I'm spiralling. So she said to just be firm and say I'm going to bed because I'm tired and I need some rest.

So when I calmed down I did that and I thought I'd be honest about not being able to go to get the tattoo. Then things just got worse. She started saying I have to go and get it; that she, D, and my dad will practically drag me outside to do it. That we can make a whole day of it by visiting the park and then the pub (this is literally the worst thing I can do). And I'm trying to be firm and assertive and not mask and lay down my boundaries. I said no, I can't do it. I know a couple of days before I need to do something if I can do it or not. Like when I've been to the dentist or I got pierced, I might have been an anxious wreck but I knew deep down inside that I could do it. I know I can't do this. My mind won't change. She started arguing that I'll feel different on Thursday and I'm letting myself down (the other worst thing to say to me). She starts saying we should get some more rum tomorrow and have the party again because I've ended it early and it's not a proper party. Also that if I'm still drunk I'll get through the tattoo easier (wtf no). And I'm no fun, and I've been planning this for a year only to end it early by basically being a boring old fart.

By this point, I'm crying. I'm sitting there feeling like I'm being told off by my mum. She's saying all the stuff my mum would when I'd have a meltdown about having to go to family parties or if I just didn't want to go sit outside. BFF is completely ratarsed just having a go at me. She hasn't even noticed I'm crying. So I just stood and announced I was going to bed. I texted D from the bedroom to ask him if he could tidy up all of the buffet food and decorations. I lay on the bed and just silently sobbed until I kinda passed out.

I woke up when D came to bed and then I cried some more. I asked if she'd said anything about the tattoo or me coming to bed and she said she wanted to hatch a plan with him to force me to go outside. Then she started to talk more about her bf and their life and stuff that made D feel very uncomfortable. I'm going to have to do something nice for D or buy him something nice as a thank you for dealing with it all like an absolute pro. I cried into him and then had a really good chat with my other BFF about everything which made me feel better. I thought maybe I'd feel better after some sleep and I do, but in the way that it's just given me even more clarity that I definitely can go do on Thursday. My mood is still terrible and all I want to do is cry.

Tbh I just wanna stay in my room. She's here til Friday and I don't know how I'm gonna face her. D is going to cancel the tattoo for me later today and say I have covid. I might reschedule at some point and get a different tattoo just for me to celebrate my birthday. I'm so mentally drained I don't know how I'm going to get through my actual birthday on Saturday. I wanted to visit my parents but I can't even see myself leaving the flat. I feel crushed tbh. I hadn't seen her for five years. She hasn't changed. She's always been this loud and gone on and on about the men she's seeing (on my wedding day she spent 12 hours on myspace chatting to a boy she fancied, so she has form) but I think since realising I'm potentially autistic, my understanding of my behaviours has changed so I have boundaries now to prevent further mental breakdowns being worse in the long run. So I've really changed. I'm not just willingly going along with shit. I don't want to mask and I don't want to people please.

If you read this, thank you. She's here til Friday and I don't know how I'm gonna get through it because now I just wanna stay in bed, watch comfort TV, and do some work on my writing. I'm 40 years old in three days time. I'm too old for this sort of stuff to be happening. This stuff is shit that should happen 20 years ago. I just wanted a cute day where I listened to all of my favourite songs, had a beige buffet, and it was all good vibes.

Thank you all for your very sweet comments too. I kept coming to check on here to give my anxious hands something to do and reading them really made me smile while all of this stuff was going down. I have some of the best followers xxxx

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sapphos-darlings · 10 months

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I still struggle with not caring about male attention. I’m a lesbian, I don’t want men to look at me and think they could hit on me but bc I’m also fat and insecure I want to look attractive and hot and I want all kinds of people to think I’m hot. Like idk why I’m struggling with this

Don't feel too bad about yourself for this, anon. A girl will nearly universally be raised into an environment where, even if their immediate caregivers don't treat them this way, she will still ultimately have it hammered into her that her future happiness depends on the male gaze.

Think of the fairytales we're told as children; how a beautiful princess is saved from peril by a prince because she is a beautiful prince, and how an evil hag is identified as such because she is also an ugly hag. Male-approved beauty is associated with a bright future, while being ugly is associated with a sour character and a terrible end. And this is just one aspect of the ways we're innocently enough brought to believe that our appeal in the male eye is how we measure what we're worth. It doesn't matter whether you desire men, it's just that men's approval is the thing that girls are raised to value themselves by. If a teen girl is unpopular with boys, she is an outcast and a weirdo. If a woman doesn't put effort into being feminine according to male desire, she has "let herself go."

The best you can do is stop yourself when you think these thoughts or have thoughts about just not being good enough because a man won't want you, and really examine it with logic; why is that the measure you're using? Will male approval get you something you need, or is it just this reflex instilled in you? What would you realistically gain by gaining male approval - are these consequences wanted, do you want the male attention, do you want to be the person who is gaining that male attention? Why or why not?

So much of changing our habits brought on by a misogynist society is about simply debating yourself out of them by logic. There is no magic redemption available that will overnight stop you from being what the people around you made into, but you can ask yourself why you are that way, and if you'd rather act or feel somehow else. True change in how we feel often comes from the realisation of the bad patterns we have and the willful correction of them; it's not easy, but it's worth it. Just be aware of yourself, and keep aiming to become the woman you want to be. While we're never complete as people, one day you might stop and notice that the woman you are now has conquered these past insecurities and problems, and instead, now has new goals to aim for.

#ask #male gaze #mod sade

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khaire-traveler · 1 year

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Your blog is really insightful about the deities and gives many good points about their character. Can you say a few things about Ares? Because unfortunately in modern media and retellings people believe that he is only a bloodthirsty god of war and also sexist for some reason, even though he respected Aphrodite and loved her and gave her the freedom of choosing partners as it is her nature and even was helping the Amazons and so on.

He is underrated i believe because media misjudged him terribly even though he did many good things as well.

Hey, Nonny, thanks for the ask! I'd be happy to talk about Ares!

Honestly, I am not as knowledgeable on Ares as someone like @theoi-crow might be (if you have any history related questions, specifically, he's a good resource), but from what I do know, Ares is actually a really great father.

That may seem like kind of a random thing to point out, but there is a myth involving Ares that tells of how one of his daughters was r*ped by one of Poseidon's sons. In response to this, Ares killed Poseidon's son. Obviously, Poseidon wasn't too thrilled about that and brought Ares to trial by the gods. If Ares lost the trial and was found guilty, he'd be sentenced to Tartarus, forced to leave Mount Olympus and (presumably) never return. Despite this, though, Ares remained resolute during said trial, fully admitting that he would've done it again to avenge his daughter. The other gods found Ares to be innocent, much to Poseidon's dismay, and both Ares and his daughter were A-OK after that. 👌

In another myth, at the wedding of his daughter Harmonia (iirc), Ares celebrated with her, even taking off his helmet (and potentially his armor???) to relax and enjoy the occasion. He danced with his daughter, and it was just a really wholesome moment in mythology. 🥰

These are the best myths I can think of to show that Ares isn't what modern media makes him out to be. He is much more than a violent, crazed god who seeks only bloodlust. The reasons many myths depict him in an unfavorable light is because they're mostly Athenian, hailing from Athens. Anything that was considered to go against Athena in some way was depicted poorly, and the Athenians saw Ares as basically being as far from Athena as you could get. Naturally, their myths about him are not exactly very kind.

On top of all these things, within my own experience, Ares is a really wonderful god to worship. He has protected, guided, and advised me in many situations where I truly needed it. He has been a somewhat stern yet positive influence in my life, and personally, I absolutely adore and admire him. He and Aphrodite share an altar in my worship space, and honestly, every time I interact with that altar, their energies feel so lovely and peaceful. They make an incredible pair. I'm pretty sure if Ares was a misogynist Aphrodite probably wouldn't mingle well with him - just saying lmao.

But yeah, Ares rocks! I suggest worshipping him to anyone who is curious and interested. He is a powerful ally and an even greater friend. Hope this is what you were looking for! Have a great day/night! ☺️🧡

(Feel free to add onto this with your own stories and myths spreading love and appreciation for Ares!)

#asks #answered asks #ares deity #helpol #ares loving hours #hellenic polytheism #hellenic pagan #rape mention

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subtile-jagden · 1 day

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A little something about Ernst und Gretha Jüngers relationship

(Anon, I hope you meant his first wife and not his second!)

Their relationship seems to have been based on mutual love but the power dynamic was very off. Ernst Jünger was a misogynist in the classic sense for the first half of his life and had a very domineering personality which influenced his marriage.

They became a couple when Ernst was 27 and Gretha was 16. This is something not super uncommon in this time but in a letter from Gretha, when she´s in her 30s, she admits that she was half a child when he married her and was not able to stand up to him properly.

Young Gretha had a passion for acting and worked at a theater. Ernst disapproved of that, he did not like her dancing and singing in front of other men. While he tried to portray himself as an anti-establishment type of guy he wanted his relationship (and later marriage) to be a very standard, “Spießbürgertum”-approved one. An acress as a wife did not fit into this picture, so Gretha quit. In letters to her he describes how he is going to mold her to his liking and help her be the person he thought she should be and that she in return will help him achive everything he wants.

He loved her but influenced by his view on women he did not take her serious. In a diary entry when Ernst was around 50 he wrote that he needed to get to an older age to appreciate the conversation and the opinions of women (side note: towards the end of his life he expressed the opinion that matriarchy is preferable to patriarchy. So he changed his views quite radically). This view was very much influenced by his father who advised him “that his future wife should be from healthy stock. She doesn´t need to be beautiful and shouldn´t be too smart, as he himself is smart enough for both of them”.

Gretha called Ernst “der Gebieter“ (engl. Lord, Master). Both in an sarcastic way as she knew he wanted to be the one in charge but also because she accepted it.

Ernst cheated a lot. In the early years of their relationship he apparently did not, even promising her in a letter that he would never betray her, that he thinks it is a terrible thing to do (as a reaction to the family finding out that his sisters husband cheated on her). But already starting in the early 1930s he broke his promise. Friends and his brothers teased him about his unfaithfullness, describing him as “loyal/devoted but not faithful”.

During WW2 he had multiple affairs (Gretha gave him a free pass: “What happens during the war…”). Until this time the cheating was purely physical. But while being stationed in Paris he fell in love with the German-Jewish emigré Sophie Ravoux, seriously considering leaving Gretha. Gretha learned about his feelings when she read diary entries (Ernst regularly sent them back to her for safe keeping). This caused a huge crisis in their marriage. Gretha felt betrayed and abandoned. Especially considering that Ernst was in the relatively safe Paris living the high life with his mistress, while Gretha was back home, which already got heavily bombed. She had already packed her things ready to leave him for good. While Ernst seemed to really be sorry and begged her not to go, he also did not seem to understand what Grethas problem was. In his eyes he fulfilled his duty as a husband: he provided for her and their children but was basically like “you have a roof over your head and food in your belly what else could you possibly want?!”. Gretha stayed and Ernst left his mistress (but later he kept on cheating regularly).

Towards the end of the war, when Ernst was at home again their relationship improved. When the news of their sons death reached them, it brought them closer together too.

Gretha resented that he moved the family around a lot, she did not like living in Southern Germany, she wanted to stay in the north. In the 50s she left Ernst for a while, going back to Northern Germany because, you guessed it, his continuous cheating.

Finally, a few words about Gretha:

She seemed to be a very strong woman but was also a push over when it came to her marriage. She had a lot of internalized misogyny, something that nowadays gets used inflationary but she is like the symbol for it. In a letter to Ernst she writes “You know that I don't think much of my own gender”. It seems to be a defensive attitude, she felt threatened by other women, rightly so since Ernst has always been a womanizer. She primarily blamed the women for his infidelity. She learned to stand up to him as she got older but still tolerated more than she actually wanted to.

When Greta got sick he took care of her and seemed very lost after she died.

#ernst jünger #gretha jünger

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mothmans-wedding-photographer · 1 month

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Mothman's Buffy Rewatch: Season 2, episodes 20 and 21, "Go Fish" and "Becoming (Part 1)

Go Fish

Buffy on da beach, what will she do

Who the fuck is this man where did he come from 😭😭

Gross! Bro just became the human globster (cryptozoology reference)

I swear I thought this episode was about the boys turning into fish monsters not being attacked by them

WHY ARE THEY STILL JUST LETTING WILLOW TEACH CLASS

"I like teaching!" "That's nice." My jaded teacher parents core

God I hate how terrible students get away with everything because they're good athletes

Cam needs to stfu

Ew he just asked her about wearing a bra

HE LOCKED THE DOOR KILL HIM KILL HIM

LMFAO GET HIS ASS BUFFY EXTREMELY DESERVED

"She totally led me on, look at the way she dresses!" God I hate him I hate him I hope he suffers

Buffy should have killed him actually

"Like an oreo cookie"

Yo is Cam about to get eaten?

Aw no he didn't :(

LMAO XANDER get him I love bullying Cam

Wait I think Cam did get eaten hell yeah

Damn Cordelia can draw? Good for her

"Good this is so sad. We're never getting the state championship" honestly yes that is sadder than the death of a sexual harassing misogynist lmao

"What? No. I just snuck in yesterday and peed in the pool." LMAO??

WHY DOES ANGELUS HAVE TO SHOW UP EVERY SINGLE EPISODE GOD

Welp he stole the monster's lunch

Nevermind the chlorine was too much for him

Oh it's steroids not chlorine woopsies

"Okey Dookie coachy"

OH WAIT IT IS ABOUT THEM TURNING INTO FISH MONSTERS I KNEW I REMEMBERED IT FOR A REASON

THE STEAM IS STEROIDS? shit Xander is in danger

Damn i thought ghe nurse was evil but just the coach ig

WHAT THE FUCK HE THREW HER TO THEM

I hope this end up eating the coach. I think they do but I don't remember this episode very well

"After the fall of the Soviet Union..." what. Stop it this is my break from history class man

"They've already had dinner. The boys have other needs." EW FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

Cordelia still caring about Xander when she thinks he's a fish man is sending me. Character growth!!

Yeah get him Xander!

BUFFY LET HIM GO !! Let him get eaten

They just let the monsters go free into the sea 😭

Becoming (Part 1)

Angel with the fuckass sideburns

I do not CARE about Bangel GRAH

Xander is so goofy with the nuggets

"Don't touch me you have fish hands!" Actually no he got cured last episode

Aw poor Drusilla :(((

It's so sad knowing how drusilla ends up :( all she wanted was to be good

"Wah, this doesn't make any sense!" She's just like me fr

Willow being firm is always so nice to see in earlier seasons

They found the disk yippee

Angelus getting bullied into having a soul by an old woman

Willow was researching the black arts... the beginning of the end (I love witch willow she's my bestie)

Xander what angel does as angelus isn't his fault 😭😭 don't get me wrong I hate regular angel but like. Don't blame him for that

KENDRA IS BACK!!

Goofy ass statue

Ok why do they want to make the entire world go ro hell. What is the point

This bitch taunting fhe soulfull vampire 😭😭

WAIT HE BROUGHT ANGEL TO SEE BUFFY????

"Oh, not the heart"

Damn Hank sounds cringe

"She's just a kid!" *proceeds to date her*

Heartwarming!!! Angelus fucking fails !!!

THE WOMAN JUST COMING INTO THE CLASSROOM AND SETTING HERSELF ON FIRE OM CRYING WHAT

Hell yeah its Mr. Pointy!!!

Immolation-O-Gram

WHY DID ANGELUS LOOK SO GOOFY WHEN HE SAID ALRIGHT LETS FIGHT bro was waving his arms around like a goofball

Dropped a bookshelf on Willow :(

I'm so glad the library I work at does not have vampire fights

Buffy stake him while he's monologuing

Why did they have to get Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunt double to run across the road

What is dru doing to Kendra lmao

THAT ONE TINY SCRATCH KILLED HER?? can someone confirm if she hit a major artery or if the writers just goofed

IT DIDNT EVEN BLEED THAT MUCH? if it was a major artery it would have bled a lot more surely 😭

Buffy gets arrested not clickbait

#mothman's buffy rewatch #buffy the vampire slayer #btvs #buffy summers #willow rosenberg #xander harris #rupert giles #cordelia chase #angelus btvs #kendra btvs

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michellezagenda · 4 months

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neill patrick harris is so high up on my list of celebs that give me an ick.

his nasty meat plate that was supposed to resemble amy whinehouse's rotting corpse was criminal. his ick is more gross human being than it is sexual predator vibes (now that i think about it, he might have said weird things about underage models)

timothee just gives me the vibes of a rich fuckboy who acts soulful to get into your pants. his "arthouse" it boy status helped a lot. also him dating one of the kardashians, i can't stand how they don't give their kids any privacy whatsoever.

seth rogen acts like he doesn't talk to james franco anymore but i'm convinced that's just for show. there's no WAY he didn't know about the things he did.

judd apatow and his daughter have racist vibes (he's definitely a racist and one of her friends is too), he is OBSESSED with bill cosby for some reason. he's never spoken as much about a famous rapist as he has with him. he also said that "the black community needs to hold him accountable" which is.... rich coming from a white man.

or his comments on the will smith slap, saying chris rock could have been killed 🤡 he also mentioned how violence in hollywood should never be tolerated when he himself did nothing about james franco assaulting busy phillips on set.

i grew up in the same town as a famous celebrity and their mother was really racist to mine on one occasion so i side-eye them and their family in general.

one of my mothers close friends met a celebrity when she was working and she said that she was horrificly rude and brought up her status as an excuse. i never tell that story because she's had a misogynistic hate train against her so a lot of people's criticism is just sexism but she really was terrible lol.

yes to all this…men are terrible but give them a little power and it’s over

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semper-legens · 11 months

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75. The Crimson Petal and the White, by Michel Faber

Owned: No, library Page count: 835 My summary: The lives of people in Victorian London cross over and intertwine in strange ways. See here a sex worker, Sugar, strangely beautiful despite her thin body and dry lips. See William, the heir to a perfume empire, stalling in the streets on his way to buy a new hat. See Agnes, the perfect Victorian woman. Their lives will twist together in one fated moment, as Sugar drags herself from the gutter...but is her new world better? My rating: 4.5/5 My commentary:

Well, this is a bit of an odd one. I didn't pick this book - a borrower at work returned it and I thought it looked interesting, so I grabbed it. At over 800 pages, it's a bit of a doorstopper, but I have to say that it didn't feel like a slog to read, and I got through it at a fast enough rate of knots. It's a novel about Victorian London, about power and class and privilege, about one man's pride and one woman's desperation, about expectations and desires meeting with the cold light of reality, and about what happens when people are pushed to their limits. The scope of this book is far, far bigger than I could possibly hope to cover just in this post, but I'll hit on some of the main points I want to talk about. Overall, though, I had a really good time with this book, and I'm glad I impulse-grabbed it!

I'm going to talk about three of the novel's central characters here, and the themes and ideas they bring to the story. First off is Sugar, a sex worker who has been brought up to please her clients and give them all that they ask for, even when it might endanger her or isn't something she wants. She is patronised by William, who essentially buys her so that no other man can have her, but she lives on a knife edge - if she loses she's favour, she's out on the streets in a much worse position than she was before. Not helping the matter is William's impulsiveness and the fact that his mood turns so quickly. Sugar is often helpless against the world of patriarchal gentlemen, and yet she never feels like a victim or like a one-dimensional character. She feels very alive, and has a real core of steel to her - as one would have to, living in these sorts of conditions. Sometimes the narration is from her point of view, and sometimes it's from the other characters, which really shows the reader all the sides of her personality; how she can be meek and pliable when that's what's needed, and what she's really thinking underneath. It's a complicated portrait of a woman in a difficult and desperate situation, and I really respected it.

Her paramour, William, also has a bulk of the novel's story. He starts as an impoverished genteel man who turns his life around and inherits his father's perfume business because of Sugar's presence in his life. He's also a misogynist, a womaniser, a cheat, and a thoroughly odious man. He wants Sugar all to himself because he cannot stand the thought of any other man having her, and yet he ignores her for days on end and leaves her uncertain about her future. His indecisiveness around what to do with his wife and daughter is to the detriment of them both, just throwing the same questionable doctor at the former and near-completely ignoring the latter. He is focused on becoming an important man, becoming the masculine ideal, being the Leader of a Business and employing a lot of servants and having any woman he wants. He has no principles he isn't willing to abandon and basically neglects everyone in his life. He's terrible, but he's so so interesting to watch.

And then there's William's wife, Agnes. She's the perfect Victorian ideal of a woman to look at her. Blonde, blue-eyed, with a perfect figure, handsome and genteel. She also has a brain tumour which is causing her to be mentally ill. Nobody in the story knows that's what the problem is - to all others, she either has 'hysteria' or is just 'mad'. One chilling scene from early on contrasts William and Sugar having sex while Agnes' doctor is giving her an internal exam; the way it's described is intensely unsettling, and really makes you feel for poor Agnes, even while she's not exactly the most sympathetic. She lies, she treats people horribly, she rejects her daughter, and while all of this is completely understandable given her illness it's still not great. It's a perfect storm - her illness isn't understanded by the world, who mistreat her because of it, and because she isn't getting any real help for her illness, she just gets worse and worse until she is actively dangerous to herself.

Poor Sugar ends up being accidentally cast as her guardian angel, and because of that...well, it's uncertain. When William wants to send Agnes to an asylum, Sugar tries to get her to a train, but it's left ambiguous what happened after that. William identifies a drowned body presumed to be Agnes, but it's unclear if it actually is her or if he's just mistaken. Still, the contrast of Victorian Feminine Ideal Agnes (who is actually severely ill and an awful mother) and Fallen Woman Sugar (who tries her best to be kind and takes on a maternal role with Sophie, William and Agnes' daughter) is interesting in what it has to say about gender roles, particularly within this time period.

One of the last things I want to touch on are two of the more prevalent motifs in this book - writing, and cleanliness. Many of the major characters are writers, one way or another. William used to want to write fiction, Sugar is attempting to write a semi-autobiographical novel, and Agnes keeps diaries that become a plot point. This interests me, because this novel has quite an interesting narrative style. It begins with the narrator directly addressing the reader, this omniscient third person voice inside all the characters' heads who is able to relay their stories to us. We are part of the narrative, and so it is interesting that all of the characters are trying to write their own narratives. And more interesting still that we see large parts of Agnes' diaries, parts of Sugar's novel, but not any of William's work outside of advertising. With the women's writings, we get to see their inner thoughts and who they really are; with William, we see only the veneer of respectability, and keep his true thoughts and feelings a secret. There's nothing personal about William's writing - and Sugar does half of his advertisements anyway!

Meanwhile, cleanliness is another idea. One of the earliest scenes is of Caroline, Sugar's fellow sex worker, douching after a visit from a client. We see chamber pots, menstruation, faeces, urine, and the bloody aftermath of an induced abortion. The author seems to be concerned with the bodily realities of this period, in contrast to its genteel and refined image, which is interesting given that William owns a perfume empire. But then, that sums up Victorian gentlefolk - a smell of lavender over a filthy reality. Perfect metaphor, really.

Next up, a journey into Anglo-Saxon England, for a look at the calendar.

#The Crimson Petal and the White #Michel Faber #bookblr #book blog #book blogging #4.5

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antiloreolympus · 2 years

Text

10 Anti LO Asks

1. it's just wild to me how LO fans (and even LO itself) claim to be about feminism and empowerment and calling out misogyny when it also loves to be misogynistic towards Minthe, Thetis, Leto, Aphrodite, etc like?? Even if you don't like the woman personally, calling her a bitch/slut/whore and saying she should be abused/assaulted/killed/tortured in very female-specific ways is also misogynistic?? Like do they think it only counts as if it's towards Persephone and Hera and them alone??

2. That anon mentioned wanting Hera to actually like someone in the story and I am once again pissed at what Rachel did the Thetis because Hera and Thetis have a genuinely good relationship in the myths when it’s brought up. (Also Thetis literally raised Hephaestus but I know that won’t be mentioned here because that would paint her in a good light and Rachel hates mothers). I just… I’ll never understand why Rachel chose the one character from Greek myth who is notable for not sleeping with Zeus and choosing to make her Zeus’ mistress as though Zeus doesn’t have like a hundred other lovers she could’ve chosen. I pray she doesn’t touch of the myth of Achilles conception because I know it gonna be done badly with terrible implications and the last thing we need is the message that Thetis “deserved” to be forced into a marriage (and all that comes with it) because she’s a bitch

3. I think the reason Eris is sometimes considered Zeus and Hera’s kid is because she seems to get conflated with Enyo a lot (even in like Ancient Greek texts she’s sometimes conflated with her so it isn’t necessarily a new thing) who was a daughter of Zeus and Hera (and sometime Ares’ wife). Still, Eris being Nyx’s daughter seems to be the much more agreed upon version and would’ve just been better overall. Also like I get how Sleeping Beauty kind of has a connection to the Apple of Discord myth but just making Eris basically Maleficent was really dumb

4. I love LO fans because they'd rather die than take an L on anything. They wiil twist bad character design and art as "well it's supposed to be ugly! That's her style!" and say it was always supposed to be badly written and even nonsensical and that's the appeal. I'd find it commendable if it wasn't so removed from reality. Like is it a win if it's "supposed" to be bad??

5. I legit just saw a LO stan claim HADES (the video game) stole from LO because their Ares also has a streak of color across his face and red eyes like LO Ares does .... that game was in development for well over a year before LO was even on Canvas. Do they think Encanto stole from LO too because Isabela can create flowers or The Simpsons stole LO Hera's coloring?

6. Ok so I'm a huge Wonder woman fan, and after reading her latest origin comic that goes into the creation of her Homeland, they show the goddesses being tired of men and my goodness! The designs for the goddesses are all so diverse and beautiful and different! Like a baffoon I looked over lore Olympus designs and I felt so robbed! Their designs are so boring and it sucks that Eris is the latest fashion criminal. If I could re-design her, I'd still have her wear black (even though she's Zeus and Hera child in this?) But I would singe her dress a bit. Maybe random blood spatter... something that **looks** chaotic.

7. ok this has been bugging me. so its basically confirmed in LO pomegranates kill your fertility, right? but we also see in the underworld pom soda is like, a thing they just drink, so is hades just casually drinking soda that kills his little hades swimmers? wouldnt just off that shouldnt persephone also have no fertility powers either bc she also drank it? someone make it makes sense (I know it's more her making stuff up as she goes again but omg the world-building in this make no sense)

8. I think my fav part about that old ask of rachel's asking about persephone's "hobbies" is not only are they super generic and not even seen in comic, but also none of them relate to her being a death or spring goddess? like really, she doesn't like gardening at the very least? what if she was really into horror or murder mystery media? why does it seem rachel is willing to make everyone else more fleshed out, but the lead character has to be as flat as possible? easier to self insert on perhaps?

9. There are literally millions of colors to pick from on a color wheel and Rachel is like better idea, I only use like 7 for all my settings and especially my ever expanding cast of characters. No I will not make any of them look different, you just have to guess which doe-eyed woman with an hourglass figure it is, who care if they're all the same shade of yellow and pink, not my problem! Like girl really, how lazy are you?

10. why are you guys saying the actual punishment will happen and years will pass. rachel is literally allergic to any sort of time progression. it'll be a month separated at most but itll more likely be a week, dare i say even two. persephone will easily be a mom of two hades clones by 21 at this rate., be realistic here guys.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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bthump · 3 years

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thank you so much for you posts on guts assaulting casca bc quite frankly... the way the fandom frames it rather lead me to overlook it and have an uncomplicated relationship with him, all the while hating what griffith did during the eclipse. (in your opinion, what makes the fandom like this?)

Thank you for sending this, I'm really happy my posts inspired you to rethink your initial takeaway from Berserk and the fandom! lol I hope that didn't ruin the experience for you or make you dislike a character you used to love or anything though, imo the way both the Eclipse and Guts assaulting Casca are written reflects more on the writing than on Guts or Griffith as characters.

Man though there are so many reasons for this imo.

I mean for starters, there's the fact that certain takes kind of have a chokehold on fandom, like the classic "Griffith was an evil unfeeling sociopath all along and here's a nonsensical explanation for every single one of his actions that seems to demonstrate otherwise" lol. I avoid the rest of fandom as much as I can and I still see a lot of instances where someone will, say, go to the Berserk reddit or Skull Knight like, "hey I don't understand xyz moment, if Griffith doesn't care why did this happen?" and get the rote "because he's a control freak who couldn't stand seeing his friends living their own lives" answer, or whatever lol. These fans shut down discussion as often as they can and most fans just accept those answers because they don't care enough to think about it themselves, or they don't have the tools to analyse the story and come to their own conclusions because critical thinking is a learned skill that many people were never really taught.

So along with Griffith being evil all along, you have fans who might be like, "hey, it's kinda fucked up that Guts tried to rape Casca right, maybe I don't want them to get together," and get responses like "no you see he was possessed at the time, it's not his fault it was the beast of darkness who is a random evil malicious entity and not a symbolic representation of Guts' dark side at all."

As for why fans are so eager to come up with these explanations and believe them, I mean to be fair for a lot of people it's just easier to enjoy a story if the protagonist is likeable and sympathetic and not an attempted rapist lol. I can understand the urge to downplay Guts' actions there or find an alternative explanation for them, because to do otherwise would reduce their enjoyment of the story. I think this urge can be very bad when it leads to people using actual rape apologist rhetoric, like "Guts stopped before he got his dick in so it's not that bad and he should be forgiven" or whatever, but when it leads to arguing that he was actually possessed then it's like... whatever lol. You're wrong, you're misunderstanding the story entirely, but at least you're happy I guess, good for you. (yk assuming they're not being an asshole to other fans who disagree, which lbr is a pretty unlikely assumption in this fandom, but you know what I mean.)

That said there are a lot of terrible Berserk fans out there who make it pretty obvious that their bad takes are rooted in offensive misogynist and homophobic beliefs. I mean a common nickname for Griffith in this fandom involves a homophobic slur, so that should tell you the kind of people I'm talking about here. Those are the ones who I very much think hate Griffith from the start because he's got serious gay vibes, and go out of their way to find reasons to justify their hate and ignore every nuance in his character arc, while excusing Guts at every possible turn because he's the manly "hetero" protagonist they wanna be.

And yk, there are just a lot of people in general who don't like moral greys, who don't like nuance in fiction, and who want to flatten as much as they can to "good" or "bad." So Guts is "good" and therefore every bad thing he does has to be explained away and ignored. Griffith is "bad" so every good thing he does also has to be explained away and ignored.

BUT to be fair and well-rounded here, it's not all the fault of fandom. The story itself makes it easy to do this. I mean the eclipse rape was 2 chapters long, it took away Casca as a character for 20 years, it made the protagonist very angry, it was commiteed by a demon who has pointedly shown no remorse, and it was basically used as motivation for a whole revenge plot.

Conversely Guts assaulting Casca was a few pages, most of which was shown in symbolic imagery in Guts' head, Guts feels bad about it, and - and this is something I absolutely hate about Berserk lol - it's had zero negative consequences, at least so far, and several positive results. It's the inciting incident for Guts realizing he needs a babysitter and has to work on being less shitty, and Casca was already afraid of him so that didn't even change for the worse. Guts sexually assaulting Casca literally had a positive impact on the narrative. This makes it a lot easier to downplay how utterly shitty it was, and this is a major problem with the story.

And like the story itself doesn't condemn Guts for the assault very harshly despite being very clear about Guts being the one responsible. This is another thing that can create cognitive dissonance for fans and require explaining away - the attempted rape was a Bad Thing but since the story itself kind of downplays it that must mean that Guts isn't actually at fault, because if he was surely it would be a whole big thing, and not one scene that has never been brought up again.

So yeah, idk, basically I think there are a bunch of reasons for the fanbase's reactions to Guts and Griffith sexually assaulting Casca, and some of them are understandable and some of them are shitty. Thanks for the ask!

#ask #b #anonymous #a #theme: critique #theme: misogyny #scene: eclipse rape #scene: beast assault #theme: fandom

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atlantis-scribe · 3 years

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idk the bit about Rodney being misogynistic bc he got taken advantage of by an older woman feels kinda uncomfy. like it veers too close to a justification for his misogyny. (ik in a real person this wouldn't like excuse his actions but since he's a fictional character it's like kinda trying to paint his worse actions in a more positive light, yk?) and like in real life people don't become misogynist/etc for like. a particular reason like that. seems kinda iffy idk

don't mean that as an attack on you or op or anything, sorry if I came off to harsh or anything! just kinda made me a lil uncomfortable (bc like I have seen similar things with other characters in the past and it always seems a lil sketchy to me)

first of all, you don't have to apologize. I get harsh anons sometimes, and they don't often feel the need to explain themselves lmao. also, I love getting asks like this; they make me all thinky :)

and you're absolutely entitled to your feelings of discomfort! while we're talking about fictional characters (which are vehicles for all the nasty or complicated thoughts & feelings that would get us shunned in polite society), discourse surrounding them still reflect a lot of things outside fandom (i.e. in the 'real' world). there is still that responsibility to be careful with the beliefs and ideas we promote.

having said all that, Rodney McKay is definitely the epitome of a 'problematic fave'. while he is a protagonist in the narrative sense, some of his more obvious flaws can make him a difficult character to like (or in my case, to justify liking heh).

as for the whole backstory headcanon, I can understand why it wouldn't sit well with many people. it does seem a bit shoe-horned and, having seen the same kind of justification for other Favorite White Male Characters' terrible behavior in other fandoms, I can definitely see where you're coming from.

(btw, I can't speak for OP but I'm glad you sent this ask, so at least I'm afforded the opportunity to reclaim my honor explain myself haha)

any kind of abuse should never justify horrible actions or behavior that one has been given a chance to change or rectify. in this case, if Rodney had been a victim of an older, female sexual predator in his youth, then that still doesn't excuse his misogynistic tendencies (and outright sexist comments & actions). it can certainly explain it, though, which is what I find so compelling about the idea.

the thing about Rodney ( & Stargate + all its characters) is that he's very much a product of his time. while today's media still exhibit a lot of backward tropes and tasteless stereotyping, we've started to find more and more artists & creators who are willing to apply nuance and care to their writing / art. though I'm sure pioneer Stargate fans have made their metas and criticism of Rodney already, his flaws as a character are even more easily brought into sharp relief now because he is not the kind of character that ages well.

if you've been following me for quite some time now, you probably have an idea why I like him. it's not the easiest thing to be, a Rodney fan, but I always make it a point to not excuse any of his bad traits. however, it's also no fun if all I do is bend over backwards to justify why I enjoy his character so much, which is why (since his writing is so inconsistent and there are so many gaps to his backstory) fans like OP and I, whenever we're given the opportunity, try to come up with bits of headcanon to tie a few loose ends together.

I certainly won't fight anyone about it, and I'm very much welcome to arguments that would debunk these ideas, but I'm acknowledging it to be a pretty neat concept. do I think real people (or even fictional characters) who are as terrible with women as Rodney is must have been abused by women when they were younger? hell no. does the headcanon make some kind of sense for why he is the way he is (which, again, is more a product of bad writing than any deliberate characterization)? I think it does.

so it's really more, 'if Rodney had been sexually abused by an older woman when he was younger, then that contributed to his misogyny,' and less, "if Rodney is misogynistic, then he must have been sexually abused by an older woman when he was younger'. there's an important difference that (I'm not even gonna euphemize this because it is rampant) so many fans defending their faves often miss.

I love Rodney for all the bits that I love about him, and I try to appropriately handle all the rest that I don't. what I wouldn't give for Rodney to have had better and consistent writing (one that, while not necessarily erased, at least properly addressed his flaws). that's why I like Trinity a lot even though he messed up so much in that episode. it had been an opportunity for growth.

[ tl;dr check second to the last paragraph lol ]

for reference: this is the post anon's talking about.

also tagging @frankthesnek in case she has something to say :)

#sorry anon if this got long #you give me an inch i take a parsec lol #stargate atlantis #rodney mckay #meta #ask #kit things

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aprilsrant · 3 years

Text

Start Over | Oliver Wood x Slytherin!Fem!Reader.

SUMMARY: (Y/N) has anger issues and a bad reputation that follows. Oliver seems to be the only one who hasn’t been on the receiving end of her outbursts and there might be a hidden reason for it.

WORD COUNT: 2,3k.

WARNINGS: Marcus Flint being an idiot and a missoginy brat, it’s kind of angsty towards the end. Maybe a curse word or two. There is a fight and a duel too. (If I miss any, let me know!)

REQUEST: can’t find it, but yes, this was requested.

A/N: This took me so long and I’m so sorry, but for some reason I couldn’t get this finished. Hope you enjoy it! Like, reblog or leave comment if you like, feedback is always appreciated!!

Also, I made the reader have a holly wand because details are important sometimes.

English is not my first language, there could be mistakes!

Gif is not mine!!

MASTERLIST.

For whatever stupid, possibly misogynist, reason, Marcus Flint never allowed girls to tryout for the Slytherin Quidditch Team, not even when he, and everyone else present, knew of their talent and how much it would benefit them. Now more than ever, with that Harry Potter kid catching every single Snitch flying round him, Flint’s team needed new members. And members that actually knew how to play and not those who would pay their way in.

Once again, (Y/N) was waiting in the stands for the Slytherin Captain and the whole group attempting to grab themselves a spot. Arriving before them gave her an “advantage” and that was not being completely disregarded the minute Flint saw her in the midst of the line up following him like some kind of lost puppys.

With nothing else to do than just stand round the edge of the Quidditch Pitch, (Y/N) looked up and watched as a few Gryffindors threw the Quaffle towards one of the three hoops. She didn’t even know why people kept trying out to be a Chaser in Wood’s team when the current three were the best they had. And they were all women. Who would have thought that girls could play that well, right?

(Y/N) didn’t know why she continued to insist when she was aware that Flint would never let her be on the team. Maybe because it was her last year, or because she had a tiny spark of hope inside of her that something, pretty much a miracle, would happen and the boy’d change his mind, finally acknowledging that (Y/N) was better than the two Slytherin beaters together.

“What are you doing here, (Y/L/N)?,” the voice of the Slytherin Captain brought her back from the train of thoughts. Glancing towards the Pitch, she realised that it was empty, the only Gryffindor there was Oliver Wood, seating in the opposite set of stands with a notebook and a pencil in his hand. Upon seeing Flint and the trail of Slytherins behind him, he rolled his eyes and quickly left his spot, steps faltering after hearing Marcus’s irritated tone. “I told you, multiple times may I remind you, that I don’t want girls in my team, and especially not those who want to be beaters.”

This was something she saw coming, of course, and she’d tried to assume it for the last couple of days every time the image of being rejected, again, would pop into her head, replaying the times were she had actually been rejected as if her own mind was trying to torture her.

She had also seen the other part coming, and she had tried to stop it. But in her defense, when Professor Snape interrogated her an hour later, Marcus Flint kind of deserved it.

“Why not, Flint? I’ve been trying to get in the team ever since you became Captain and decided I wasn’t good enough after our fourth year,” (Y/N) had said, voice raising after more words left her mouth. With her broomstick in hand, she stepped down the stands and marched towards him.

“You said it yourself, (Y/N), you weren’t, and still aren’t, good enough,” Marcus responded while shrugging his shoulders arrogantly and walking past her.

“I was good enough, you prick, I was better than just good enough and you fucking know it.” All of the group that had gathered to try out turned their heads in her direction when she started to scream, whispers and shared glances expectant of the outcome of the argument. Pushing a third year in front of her out of her way, she kept walking, stopping only after she was face to face with Marcus. “And how can you be so sure I’m not adequate? You haven’t even let me fly around the Pitch for the last two years.”

Ignoring her, Flint commanded the two boys carrying the box full of equipment to leave it on the floor and start to warm up.

“Can you… Can you, please, let me try this one time?,” (Y/N) whispered, burying her pride and dignity in the same coffin after the word please escaped from her mouth.

“Now you’re begging, you are pathetic, (Y/L/N), and they say you’re supposed to be dangerous” the boy exclaimed, clearly enjoying seeing her so desperate. He walked towards her, his taller figure towering over the girl. “Let me tell you something. Both of us were on the team, right now one is the Captain and the other one… Well, I’m pretty sure you know your exact position in this whole thing. And that’s why you are not in my place, because you are not good enough.”

Her teeth, jaw and fists clenched at the same time, the rest of her body shaking slightly, lighting up on fire with every sentence Marcus sneered at her.

From a young age she had people question her, her interests and her decisions, even her place in the House of ambition, many believing the girl to be “too soft” at first. That had changed after the start of her second year. If they wanted her to be violent, rash and reckless, that’s what they got. Now, every time her name was mentioned around Hogwarts, whispers and rumours would be shortly behind. Most of the things people said about her were incorrect, not even close to the truth, but she accepted them anyways. She took each one of the rumours and turned them into her truth.

For some (Y/N) (Y/L/N) was on the right path to become a Dark Witch, a pureblood longing to take on Lord Voldemort’s place and rule over the Wizarding World, torturing muggleborns and blood traitors. To others, she was the Devil’s offspring in the flesh, waiting for the right moment to raise the forces of hell upon Hogwarts. And they were the ones speaking of her mental state while coming up with ridiculous theories. Nonetheless, she had to admit it was a new kind of entertainment seeing the first years getting warned about her, bombarding them with false information and stupid allegations. But the laughs she would have from it on her own company didn’t erase the loneliness and the solemn feeling of having no one.

Like the symbol of her house, (Y/N) was a creature of instinct. And like what people murmured about her, (Y/N) was also a creature of violence.

As only one can imagine, no one was shocked from the response Marcus Flint got. Not in words, or insults, which were regular, but in the form of a fist connecting with his cheek (although she had intended to hit the nose).

One would think anger makes people a better fighter, all that pent up rage coming from nowhere and lashing out against your opponent it’s more damaging to you than the person you are fighting. Now, this was not (Y/N)’s first fist fight but that didn’t mean she knew what she was doing. Every time she had punched someone it had happened in the midst of uncontrollable wrath growing, attaching itself to the girl’s body, controlling her limbs, numbing her mind.

For a moment she closes her eyes, one thought in her mind, vanishing as quickly as it appeared, — I did it. Again —. When (Y/N) opens them, she notices the change of scenario, or positions. She is no longer standing on her feet, she is several metres away from her housemate, the back of her body on the receiving end of the harsh floor; the loud beating of her heart thundering in her ears, almost giving her a headache, swallowing the spell Flint had used on her.

After rising from the grass, (Y/N) marches towards him, holly wand in her hand shooting hexes, barely missing its target. She’s about to whisper the Stunning Spell when someone from behind grabs her wrist, holding her back from trying to curse Marcus, whose responses are getting slower and scarcely protecting him. An arm sneaks around (Y/N)’s figure, distancing her from the Slytherin Quidditch Captain.

Her elbow moves almost instinctively and hits the person behind her in the stomach, the arm around her waist retreating fast enough for (Y/N) to cast a protection charm and petrify Marcus Flint.

Turning around, she sees none other than Oliver Wood, bending over his stomach with a hand clenching his right knee and gasping for air.

“What the bloody hell was that, Wood?”

“I was trying to help you!,” he manages to say while looking up at her.

“Help me? You were trying to stop me, you twat.”

“Exactly!,” Oliver shouts, making her move backwards, “Do you want to get yourself expelled, (Y/L/N)? Because if that’s what you want, you are doing an excellent job.”

She should have hexed him right there, no one else was on the Quidditch Pitch with them, except the handful of Slytherins and those weren’t the snitching types, but she didn't, surprising herself and everyone else watching them.

|||

Later that night, after finishing the horrendous detention Snape had put her in —reorganizing his entire cabinet claimed by suspicious ingredients and potions with terrible smells, making the small space smell like rotten eggs and the Gryffindor Quidditch robes after a rough match—, looking at the moon and the landscape surrounding Hogwarts from the Astronomy Tower, she thought about the reasons to why she hadn’t raised her wand, or fist, to face Oliver.

He wasn’t special. Yes, he was a great wizard, with problems in Potions and History of Magic, still quite good at Defensive spells but not that good to beat her if she was fully focused, he would be easy to defeat especially after Quidditch tryouts. So, why? Why did she just walk away?

“I knew I could find you here.”

(Y/N) turned around, quickly taking hold of her holly wand and raising it towards the tower’s entrance. The thundering in her chest calming, her breathing going back to its normal pace when she realised it wasn’t Sirius Black, the murderer that had escaped Azkaban and was said to have roamed through the castle.

“What are you doing here, Oliver?”, she addressed him once the moonlight illuminated his tall figure.

“I wanted to apologise,” the boy admitted, his voice faltered just like his approach, as if he was trying to make peace with a beast; as if he was telling a snake that his feet would not come close to its head, “for what I said earlier. It wasn’t fair because I know how you…”

“How I what? How I tend to react when I’m angry?,” (Y/N) interrupted, the hand holding her wand still facing Oliver, “don’t try to act like you know me.”

“But I used to,” he murmured.

Neither of them said anything, both of their minds desperately trying to find the right words, one to plead for forgiveness once again and the other to accept it if the plea ever escaped his mouth.

The distant sound of creatures soaring through the night sky and the flip of their wings was all they heard for minutes, minutes that had felt like hours; she would dare to say days if the sky wasn’t still dark, filled with bright stars circling a full moon.

“Why don’t we get to know each other all over again? We can start over, please.”

There it was.

And then it came.

“That’s such a great idea, Oliver!,” (Y/N) answered with a big smile on her face, the quick change of demeanour unsettling Oliver. They hadn’t talked in years but he was still amazed at how much he remembered of her, and how this didn’t mean any good. “We can get to know each other like all those years ago and then, you can abandon me like all those years ago”. The grin on her lips transforming into a scowl right after she pronounced the last part of her sentence.

“Why are you even here, Wood? You felt guilty and now you’re trying to make it go away? Or is it charity?,” the Slytherin kept ranting,” or better yet, someone challenged you to do this? I’m putting all my money on the Weasley Twins.

“N-No, no, it’s nothing like that,” Oliver explained while moving his hands and walking the final steps leading him to (Y/N),“ I just- I never- I, I never wanted this, I never expected it but everyone was talking about you and-and they were saying horrible things and…”

“And you believed them,” (Y/N) stated, turning around to stop facing him and his hurt expression,” I don’t blame you for doing it. It’s quite funny if you think about it.”

“What’s quite funny?,” his gaze still on her when he asked.

“Most of the things you and the rest of the school heard were invented by me, so people would just stop bothering me,” she pretended to confess only to the stars, for if she didn’t, she would never admit it to him,” you can say I planned my entire doom. And it’s quite funny because, in the end, you still believed me.”

“You could have told me, (Y/N). Why didn’t you?”

“You believed the rumours, I’m sure not the craziest ones though, but that tells me that you thought I was capable of actually doing all the terrible things I said about myself.”

“I’m sorry, I am, (Y/N), truly.”

“Sorry doesn’t mend it,” she murmured, now forcing herself to look him in the eyes and act as if the pain never happened; as if she hadn’t missed his company and his random, permanently out of place Quidditch facts.

“I know, but it’s everything I have right now and I hope you can forgive me one day.”

“I have already forgiven you, Oliver, but I was too proud to reach you.”

“Typical you, (Y/N). I should have expected it.”

A small smile formed in her lips and for a moment she forgot their broken friendship, the reputation that had become her shadow and the future awaiting after Hogwarts. It was only them, (Y/N) and Oliver, with the moon glowing down on their faces and the feeling of being eleven year olds settling over their minds.

taglist: @gcdric @lilac-wrists @cappsikle @aesthetically-hailey @shadowsinger11 @slytherinsunrise @theweasleysredhair

If you want me to add you to the taglist, send an ask or dm me!!

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rogersstevie · 3 years

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"then once i started seeing some posts that got into the issues with peggy’s character post endgame, that was mentioned and it’s like oh yeah that really was on her, she was in charge, she made that choice even if it’s not explicitly said" -> YUP. i saw ppl say it was just misogynist stuckes complaining. No, it's because ENDGAME ITSELF SHOWED US THAT SHE WORKED AT A QUASI-FASCISTIC BLACK SITE W ZOLA *RIGHT THERE* IN THE 70s (also it's harder to stomach intelligence agency propaganda these days).

ppl calling ANY criticism of a woman (real or not) misogynistic really does not help when trying to call out actual instances of misogyny skjdfjs i hate it y’all there are valid criticisms especially in this case

like i said in my post i’d never seen people talk about it before and like a lot of my views on peggy and her relationship with steve were based on the way like most fanfiction i’ve read framed it (that hydra infiltrating shield was something terrible that happened to her organization, not something that she caused and that she and steve had a Grand And Tragic Love Story, not just. crushes on each other)

but the thing is reading all that fanfiction isn’t a thing that applies to a lot of fans so i don’t know how THEY buy into these narratives because it’s not really what marvel was telling us. sure, we were reminded multiple times over the years of peggy’s existence, but the word love was never used, not that it HAD to be, but the only instance was agent carter, which was also as stupid as endgame saying it but at least agent carter was like, following the loss of steve so you could understand overdramatizing things and her calling him the love of her life, even though he wasn’t a love at all lmao. like post catfa, and even catfa itself, the mcu does not go on about this Tragic Romance, it’s like barely touched on that steve and peggy had this almost relationship, really, until endgame hits you over the head with it, so they can justify their bad ending. so why do fans believe it makes sense??? literally everything that makes peggy and steve’s relationship a bigger deal than it was is fanon, the mcu itself didn’t really do that. it’s why at the time i thought steve/sharon was so much weirder bc i bought into this from all the fic i read and now i’m like......yeah, idt they needed to write peggy and sharon as related to begin with, BUT it’s not actually that icky bc he and peggy didn’t date, she really kinda was “just a woman he kissed one time” no offense lmao

and re: peggy bringing in zola and how fic frames it like, “oh man how terrible” as if she isn’t responsible, i have to wonder if the mcu would’ve delved into any sort of blame if we’d gotten an actual cap 3 that followed up with the events of catws, i mean probably not, especially not by 2016 bc wasn’t that around the time disney bought marvel and like.......everything went downhill. i mean i know these superhero movies were always gonna have a certain narrative about the military and intelligence agencies but it sure seems to have gotten worse when disney came on

idk i’m rambling but yeah like, i do get how a lot of fans don’t acknowledge peggy’s flaws bc i myself hadn’t thought about any of it before or seen any of the discourse surrounding her character, really, but it’s just kind of like, like you said, they just think it’s stuckies being misogynistic or whatever, but once you see the conversation being had, how can you just brush it off and act like she can’t be criticized, she brought zola in, *steve voice* peggy, you CHOSE to do that, it’s literally her fault hydra took over lmao

#Anonymous #ask #anti peggy carter #anti steggy #anti endgame #also........i understand thinking she was a badass in 2011 when catfa came out when we had few women in the mcu (we still do compared to me #but oh my god compared to agent carter she is truly kinda terrible in catfa #like........not even just the shooting at steve there are other times when it's like wow you are not great for him #did i actually respond to anything you were saying mayhaps not

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earhartsease · 2 years

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I recently read an article (which of course I can't find again now to link here) that's changed my relationship with being a Jew

Backstory: I was born and brought up in a London Jewish family, where I and my sibling and parents were all non-believers, but I was brought up to think of myself as "not English but of the Jewish race" (my grandparents all took up Orthodox Judaism as sort of a retirement hobby, so I went to orthodox shul a few times with my mum's dad - I was still cosplaying a cis male at the time - until I was 8 and decided I preferred bacon for breakfast)

Even as a little kid I understood that "Jewish race" didn't mean "one race" but included Jewish people of all the ethnicities there are (I don't remember who told me, but by the time I was 4 I already knew there were Sefardim and Indian and Chinese Jews at the very least, probsbly my hyperlexic self was already trawling National Geographic). But I was never comfortable with the (mostly orthodox Ashkenazi) Jews surrounding us, who definitely were racist and misogynist and thought of The Jewish Race as "White People + Israelis Of Course But Not The Really Brown Ones" *shudder*

My family emigrated to Israel when I was 3 (so in '65) and it went terribly, because my parents had self-sufficiency fantasies but were basically a pair of middle-class London Jews who had no clue and mostly just wanted to put a lot of distance between them and their own parents. So we came back in '66 (and thus avoided being in a war) and I avoided growing up a queer trans atheist kid in Israel, thank fuck

I loved Israel in the 60s - we went back for a few summers at the end of that decade - it still felt very multicultural and balanced, we had Druse and Egyptian friends, I wasn't old enough to recognise the inequalities

I went back for a summer in '79 when I was 16, and vowed never to go back again - I hated how the cities were really striving to be European™ and the only Arabs I saw were sweeping streets and the vibe was soooo much more nationalistic than before (or I was just old enough to notice it bloody everywhere now)

Anyway - I became a Buddhist when I was 28 and was unlucky enough to spend nearly 30 years in what was essentially a cult (misogynist, kind of racist, very transphobic and gender essentialist), which I left nearly four years ago - and I've since just begun to re-explore my relationship to Judaism, partly out of a sense of need for a Family I guess?

And this article I read said essentially "please stop using the word 'race', we are a people - the language of race is way too easily false and toxic and divisive and exclusive" and I finally feel like I can identify with my Judaism, as a member of a people that spans many ethnicities and nationalities and ranges from ultra-orthodox to people like me who are of the people but not of the religion that comes with it for many - and ranges from rabid zionists to anti-zionists too (I am very much the latter, from the relative comfort of England)

So that's all I wanted to say - you may not feel the same way I do about all this, but I feel I'm now comfortable with describing myself as "feral buddhist/animist, of the Jewish people" - I did a dna thing recently and confirmed that I'm mainly a mix of "East European Jewish" and Central Asian (my mum's dad was very visibly the latter, I would guess descended from the Kazakhi Jewish community ending up in what's now Ukraine)

It's probably pretty self-indulgent of me writing this, but it came out of recently meeting a fellow non-religious autistic nonbinary Jew and being able to compare notes on how to feel part of a community that mostly doesn't acknowledge or accept nonbinary people - I still don't know how to do that, but I have a lifetime of complicated connection with judaism, the joyful and the awful of it, the inclusive and the exclusive of it, the terrible history (I'm old enough to have grown up among people who got out but who remembered family and friends who didn't, and some people who survived being children and young adults in the camps), and I still don't know how to manage this sense of connection, how to find more people like me in there

#secular judaism #jewish people #not a zionist #long post

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im-just-a-random-fandom-girl · 3 years

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trying to articulate my frustrations with Marvel’s treatment of female characters and characters of color

Hi, hello, hola, bonjour. I've been having a lot of thoughts about Marvel’s lack of diversity and of how they treat minority characters, so I'm taking a page out of Luisa’s (@its-tortle) book and just making a long, rambley post to get it all out.

Please bear with me while I try to encapsulate all of my frustration within the limitations of English language.

(ALSO, I'm white. I’m Spanish-American, but I do not have the ability to speak for fans of color and the other grievances they have. This post is just a combination of my own thoughts and what I've heard other people say on Tumblr, in YouTube videos, in articles etc.)

Now that we've had over week to collect ourselves after the WandaVision finale, because it was such a tearjerker and the end of a true masterpiece of a show, we really need to talk about how Marvel treats their their characters of color and female characters. I'll specifically be looking at Sam Wilson, Natasha Romanoff, and Monica Rambeau.

Let's start with Sam.

Until Monica Rambeau became Photon just a few weeks ago in WandaVision, Sam was THE ONLY Black superhero in the MCU.

He first appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier 7 years ago in 2014, and he's been in 4 movies since then (not counting the post-credits of Ant-Man).

Let's see what we know about Sam in the MCU:

He was a pararescue airman in the U.S. Airforce

His wing-man, Riley, died in combat, prompting him to leave active duty

He works at the VA to help other veterans adjust to civilian life

That's it. This is all we know about his backstory, separate from Captain America. However, the MCU decided to include these parts of his backstory, (and exclude others) because they make him a better supporting character to Steve.

Sam's a vet - so is Steve. They have the same, early-morning run routine that alludes to strict military training. Steve is still new to the future and hardly knows or approaches anyone, but Sam is wearing his VA sweatshirt, so there's some sense of connection, one that is furthered when they talk about their beds being too soft. Sam is someone who can understand him, aside from being a super soldier.

Riley, Sam's wingman, died in combat - Hmm, haven't heard that one befo - oh, wait. *Bucky waves from the abyss of the Alps*. Yeah.

I'm not saying that these connections are bad, in fact, I think the opposite. In terms of storyline, these connections are incredibly important for their friendship. Steve is lost and alone in the future. No one he knows cares about him for any reason other than the fact that he's a super soldier, nor can he relate to any of those people on any level. Sam just fits. He's funny and kind and although they are 60 years apart in age, he can, to some extent, understand what Steve is going through in a way they no one else can.

But for the last 7 years in the MCU, all he's been is Steve's supportive friend.

Almost immediately after meeting Steve, Sam is dragged into an end-of-the-world battle. He readily agrees to put his life on the line to fight by Captain America's side. After SHIELD falls, Sam gives up his life for 2 years to help Steve find Bucky. When they find him, Sam, without a second thought, becomes an international fugitive to protect Bucky and Steve.

I mean, he practically says that he lives in Steve's shadow himself:

"Don't look at me. I do what he does, just slower."

Who does all this? Seriously? Sam is also a recovering vet. He, in theory, has a life, a family, a job, his own mental well-being to consider, but he immediately gives it all up to help Captain America, to follow in his shadow, to be his back-up and support in every battle. Marvel wrote him as a 2D character that lacks his own identity and agency.

Sam deserves his own storyline; he deserves to exist outside the orbit of Steve Rogers.

What Mackie has been able to do with the character is astounding. He took Sam off the page and truly brought him to life, turning him into a beloved character. I'm ecstatic that both Mackie and Sam finally (hopefully) get their time to shine in TFATWS, but it should have happened WAY sooner. Marvel has continuously overlooked Mackie, despite how much he brings to the movies and despite the significance of Sam as the only Black superhero. It's just so clear that they do not care about representation.

(And let's not start with the whole "Bucky should be Captain America" thing, thanks)

Next, let's talk about Natasha.

Nat has been in the MCU for 11 years, starting with Iron Man 2 in 2010. She was heavily featured in an additional 6 MCU movies (not including small cameos/post-credit sequences). She's one of the few female superheroes in the MCU, and the only one that's been there since the beginning. Nat was the only female superhero for 4 years until Gamora appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Let's see what we know about Natasha's history:

She's a former KGB operative and assassin, trained in the Red Room project

When she was a part of the Red Room, she was sterilized

Clint Barton got her out of the Red Room and converted her to a SHIELD agent

THAT'S IT. The second point is actually nauseating because this is what she says to Banner when we learn about her infertility in Age of Ultron:

"They sterilize you. It’s efficient. One less thing to worry about, the one thing that might matter more than a mission. It makes everything easier — even killing. You still think you’re the only monster on the team?"

Like, actually, what the fuck? I remember watching this scene and having to rewind because I thought I mis-heard what she said. In truth, Natasha is probably referring to the terrible things she was forced to do as a KGB operative are what make her a "monster," but why in the world would they include this anecdote here?? It's just so distasteful and disgusting! It makes it seem like her infertility is what makes her a monster, perpetuating the misogynistic belief that the center of a woman's identity and purpose is to have children.

As Vox says in this article, the subject of Nat's infertility

"rears its head sub-textually when Black Widow sacrifices herself for the Soul Stone. [...] It’s reasonable for Natasha to make the calculation that Clint’s kids deserve to have a dad when they come back to life after the Avengers complete their “time heist.” But because of that Ultron plot, there’s also an insidious implication that Natasha’s infertility renders Black Widow just a little bit more disposable than the rest of her teammates."

Furthermore, Nat's death in Endgame serves for nothing more than motivation for the other characters working in the time heist, WHICH ARE ALL MALE. Even then, the other characters talk about her death briefly (in a mostly unaffected manner), and by the end of the movie, she's been pretty much forgotten about, completely overshadowed by Tony Stark.

I don't want to say that Nat shouldn't have died in Endgame. It caused me so much heartache and emotional pain, but I truly believe it was a great way to end her arc. CinemaWins on YouTube put it best:

"She needed to save her family, Clint included, finally wiping the red from her ledger. So much of her jouney in the MCU was trying to find her purpose, figure out which side she was on, and she finally feels like she's found it, just in time to die for it.

"It's not wrong to feel cheated by her death, [but I think] she deserved this moment because of it's importance."

She says it in the movie:

"I used to have nothing, and then I got this. This family. And I was better because of it."

Nat shouldn't have to die, but it's on her terms, and she is absolutely ready for it. Saving her chosen family... that is her purpose.

But altogether, over the course of the MCU, Natasha was cheated out of getting the storyline she deserved. Like Sam, she was relegated to the position of the supportive friend of Steve, but also of Bruce and Clint. For the audience, her identity is tied to this role that she plays. The identity and motivations she has independent from these other characters, her history, is skimmed over, and treated with immense disrespect.

It took 11 years, but it is thrilling that Scarlett Johansson finally gets to be the start of her own Marvel movie. There is no way that Black Widow will be able to completely make up for her and Natasha's mistreatment by the MCU, but I hope it will at least bring us some closure and allow us to have a better understanding of Nat's history and who she is away from the other Avengers.

Last, but certainly not least (despite what WandaVision may have you believe) is Monica Rambeau.

I spoke about this last week after posting about this review of the show, but it bears repeating.

Monica is a new character. You'd hope that, after 11 years of extremely limited diversity in the MCU, much to the dismay of fans worldwide, and after recognizing this and creating a movie with a cast like The Eternals, Marvel would try to get their shit together across the board.

Nope!

Monica was seriously the token diversity character of the show. It seemed like they would give her more depth after the episode during which they flashed back to the her during and after the snap, losing her mother, and seeing a little bit of what she's done as an adult since Captain Marvel, but that ended up being the most we got.

But why? Monica literally became a SUPERHERO. She became Photon! She deserved a much greater role in the show, especially in the finale, where she instead had maybe 5 lines and just stopped some bullets for about 30 seconds.

As the review I linked says,

“There are so many black writers, fans, and critics noting how Monica got relegated to a complete lack relegated to meaningless best friend protector lacking in their own self agency and story except for making a shoehorned comparison of grief.”

Marvel made the same, bull-headed mistake that they made with Sam with Monica!

Let's do this again. Monica was snapped away for 5 years, and when she was snapped back, she learned that her mother had died. Losing someone you love and having the whole process of mourning and pain be complicated by the snap? What an interesti- oh wait. *Vision phases his head through the wall with a smile*

The only reason we got this backstory was because it made her a more sympathetic character towards Wanda. Her understanding of what Wanda is going through allows her to be the catalyst in the creation of the ideological fork in the road between herself, Darcy and Woo, who see Wanda as a victim of grief and loss, and Hayward and the rest of SHIELD, who see her as a dangerous threat.

How do you make the same, major mistake that you've been making for the past 7 years again? Guess what? You don't! Maybe it's not intentional, but Marvel, again, clearly doesn’t care enough about their characters of color to consider the roles they relegate them to in the MCU, realize what they've been doing is harmful, and then change it.

Hopefully, they will not continue to treat Monica this way and will remedy this in the next Captain Marvel.

In conclusion: MARVEL GAVE A FUCKING ROBOT AN ACTUAL ORIGIN STORY, A RELATIONSHIP AND MORE INDEPENDENCE THAN ALL OF THESE CHARACTERS.

But in all seriousness, Marvel needs to be help accountable for how they treat women and their characters of color in the MCU. I just looked at 3, but you could also make a similar argument about Rhodey, Hope van Dyne and Valkyrie, as well as Jane Foster, MJ, and Ned, although they are supporting characters and not superheroes. And I'm sure there are many others. Marvel (and Disney!!) has had an awful track-record, and change is long overdue.

#fuck marvel #fuck disney #sexism and racism in marvel #minorities in minor roles #thank you for coming to my TED talk #discussion #fatws #wandavision #sam wilson #natasha romanoff #black widow #monica rambeau

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