#duality of girlhood

[0nlyangel0910]

The duality of girlhood is going to the mall in a Jane Birkin-esque look and during the same day going skating in the baggiest, most 90s looking outfit one could imagine

#duality of girlhood #outfits #Jane Birkin #90s #skating

[garden-the-goblin]

Big fan of the reoccurring motif in fiction where god is just a little girl. Like I adore how writers came to the unanimous agreement that the most terrifying thing you could be is a little girl left to her own devices. That's good shit.

#Why is girlhood so holy? #did someone watch us at five years old and realise “that one serves no god; she must be the divine creator”? #did they watch us play dolls and collect bugs and realise our duality was sacred? #or does it stem from the thing about how the scariest thing a woman can do is eat alone? #Also religious trauma goes brrr #writers #writers on tumblr #creative writing #on writing #writing prompts

[roonilwazlibimagines]

#I have many complaints about the current dating scene #number 1 being Snapchat and sexting #like I am getting dick pics rn #but more importantly I’m trying to figure out what job Draco malfoy would have at the ministry because for some reason he doesn’t have one? #just the duality of girlhood ig #the story of my life

[seagullfeather]

Me in Greece: i am free. I am swimming in the sea's embrace and my hair is free and wavy and beautiful and natural as it should be. I wear the clothes that represent me and my body is mine with all its flaws, that's what makes me unique and beautiful. The poets would adore me both today and in ancient Greece. 17 is the most aesthetic age of girlhood ever. The coast looked the same 2000 years ago. People gazed at the same sea and watched the sunset excatly where i did. I can live slowly and let my divine femininity unfold. I am not afraid of the love my soul holds. My heart is light because life is only a moment but it is entirely mine. My existence is art.

Me at home: im literally adam sandler if he loved black metal and had some more religious visions tbh

#the duality of queerness #and my life #genderqueer #girlhood #love #sea #greece #self love #nature #personal #feelings #adam sandler #travel #femininity #divine feminine #love poems to the sea

[glitterpennotes]

Do you understand the violence it took to become this gentle?

anon (?)

I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean

who's afraid of little old me?, taylor swift

duality of man (by man i mean me)

#poetry #writers and poets #poem #poets #girlhood #womanhood #trauma recovery #recovery #mental health #the tortured poets department #taylorswift #ttpd #whos afraid of little old me #the duality of man

[saltair-and-palemoonlight]

There are two wolves inside of me and one wants to be strong and motivated and the other wants to cry myself to sleep every night and never move on from anything ever

#the duality of woman #lilly talks #girlhood #this is what makes us girls #girl blogger #girlblogging #girl blog aesthetic

[dustyvent]

Oh to be young and unafraid. Loud and boisterous. Full of confidence, unafraid of spewing hateful words when the world revolves around you. To be untouchable and undeniable. The fear of fitting in or standing out coursing through your veins. I wish to go back to the days where death was but a mere trope, something that could happen to anyone but you. The days where my voice could be heard from miles away, loud laughter booming across the sky with not a care in the world. I wish to go back to the days when I was untouchable, all the bad in the world was but a faraway fable, rape, and war, and hunger were things I deeply cared about but would never happen to me. When I did not care about my safety because I was always safe in my own world, when fear was a concept unknown to me, and consequences would come after every decision.

I wish for the days when death would not creep up on me slowly and make a home in my bones.

#ventcore #vent blog #thoughts #girlhood #the duality of teenhood #teenhood #i forgot my headphones at home today so I have to deal with every single thought I have

[the-crooked-library]

On Horror, Queerness, Mirrors, and Dracula

Your wish is my command (you may or may not regret this). 

Here’s the thing - I love horror, and I love patterns, and I think the best horror is always in some sense symmetrical.  It might not be obvious, but what’s the point of staring into an abyss if you can’t see your own face reflected back?  The symmetry itself comes in any number of different twists, whether it is familial, communal, erotic, or individual, and most of these apply to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

The centre of our novel rests on the Harkers.  So, starting with Jonathan - his experience in Transylvania is a twisted version of his life back home.  Dracula is reserved but eloquent, seemingly caring and occasionally affectionate, he reads train schedules and they spend hours upon hours in conversation; which is a dark mirror to Jonathan’s train schedule-loving, passionate but serious Mina.  It may even be said that the Count is re-enacting a caricature of traditional heteronormative domesticity - he maintains the household, waits on his guest himself, and blows him kisses from the stairs.  His possessiveness of Jonathan is the only way a vampire like Dracula is capable of understanding the bond Jonathan shares with Mina.  The Count states that he, too, feels love; but he is written by a closeted gay man in the late 19th century, so his imitation of married life is both a lie and a tragedy.  He is a shorthand for forbidden, wrong, and corrupting desires. 

At the same time, Mina herself also has a same-sex connection in the beginning of the story, and her relationship with Lucy mirrors the relationship between Jonathan and Dracula.  They cling to each other, in a sense; despite being excited about the prospect of their impending marriages, there is some trepidation associated with this new stage in life.  A common part of a dowry used to be a shroud, simply due to the frequency at which Victorian wives died in childbirth soon after the wedding; and even provided a survival, the transition to married life was still a loss of innocence.  As such, Lucy’s affection for Mina is the last expression of her girlhood, and she herself is the personification of Mina’s.  Lucy is, therefore, the direct antithesis of the Count; her death and subsequent rising change Mina the same way that Dracula does Jonathan, establishing a firm duality between the Harkers and their respective vampires. 

The other characters are reflections of each other, as well; the suitors defend while the brides terrify, Van Helsing wants to preserve life while Renfield wishes to consume it - and even further, the old Hungarian lady cares enough about  a stranger to give Jonathan a cross for protection, while Lucy’s own mother lets Dracula into the house herself, selfishly ignorant of her daughter’s needs and the doctor’s orders.  Another parallel is drawn again between Jonathan and Renfield, who represents directly what he could have been, had he not escaped from Dracula’s grasp; which makes Renfield’s vehement, last-ditch attempt to protect Mina perhaps all the more poignant.  In him, she sees the resilience of Jonathan’s humanity; while he gets to see exactly what she could become after her turning  - in Dracula himself.  These dualities are integral to the story’s thematic structure, and therefore inextricable from each character’s development. 

There is really too much to say about each individual dynamic to fit into one rant, but for the current purposes, I can forgo the details.  They all converge as it is on Jonathan and Mina, and thus, the central theme of this story is devotion.  If Jonathan had truly broken, like Renfield, Mina would have stayed by his side; and if she had fully turned, like Dracula, he would have adored whatever shred of her still remained.  In madness and in death, in happiness and sorrow, in sickness and in health - until the echoes start to sound like wedding vows. 

@stripedshirtgay​

@bluberimufim​

#dracula #dracula daily #jonmina #jonathan harker #mina harker #dracula meta #bram stoker #y'all asked for this #now scream with me bc i've been internally screaming about this for years #it's about the DEVOTION #lucy westenra is mina's innocence #dracula is jonathan's fear of inadequacy #renfield is his humanity #dracula is an evil version of mina i said what i said #that's Partially why jonathan wasn't weirded out enough #like yes yes eccentric old count #but he writes a diary in shorthand #and his fiancee loves train schedules #who's he to judge

[cardsharksplayingames]

Thinking about Long Live and Castles Crumbling being written for the same album. The duality of girlhood

#andrea rambles

[oliviatexts]

duality of girlhood

#käärijä #jere pöyhönen #taylor swift

[d3cayingdolly]

the duality of girlhood: refusing to buy a bottle of water but willing to sell your soul for anything that's in your favourite colour pink

#coquette #lana del ray aesthetic #lana del rey #lily rose depp #coquette dollete #girlblogger #soft aesthetic #dollette #ldr #girlblogging #girlhood #hell is a teenage girl #girl interrupted #girlblog #coquette aesthetic #dollette aesthetic #pink #girlblogger2008 #gaslight gatekeep girlboss #twilight #divine feminine #oceanblvd #lizzy grant #dollcore #vintage americana #nostaligiacore #buffalo 66 #alana champion #pinterest

[bookishable]

billie eilish's "what was i made for?" hits so hard in ways i can't explain. it's about girlhood and growing up. it's about leaving your childhood behind and the sadness that comes with knowing you will never be a child again. it's about the ease with which you floated through the world as a little girl before suddenly becoming aware of yourself and the space you take up around the age of 12. it's about the impossible duality of existing as a woman and and it's about losing passion for an activity you loved as a child and learning to find joy in it again. anyway

#barbie #barbie 2023 #billie eilish #im not good at articulating my feelings about music

[the--marsening]

duality of girlhood

[turnallthemirrors]

okay hear me out. Taylor Swift and Persephone. the maiden goddess of spring and the queen of the underworld. the duality of womanhood. 6 pomegranate seeds, 6 stolen albums. give me back my girlhood it was mine first. honey I rose up from the dead I do it all the time.

#does it make sense? no. but im having a ball on this bitch #sydposting

[thegirlivealwaysbeen]

these being next to each other on the list is so 😭💀

dualities of girlhood 🎀🎀

#sophie tag #💌

[taylortruther]

So here's my thing about the Barbie discourse:

Almost nothing that holds such an iconic place in society is one thing. So much of this discourse comes from this, imo, immature very black and white internet space. It's either good or bad. But like most things, Barbie is both.

Everything critics have said about Barbie being a cultural icon of the patriarchy is true. Barbie's size has long been critiqued and also studied and it has done real damage to real people. This is all true and not to be made light of

Studies upon studies upon studies have also shown that dolls and prominent cultural figures engaging in traditionally male dominated fields increases the participation of young girls. So Barbies such as Astronaut Barbie increase girls' participation in STEM. There is empowerment even without Greta Gerwig's film.

Barbie is the pretty pink, Barbie is the tiny and physically impossible body, Barbie is the permanent high heels. Barbie is also the astronaut and the doctor. She is both the bimbo and the message that girls, too, can be smart.

And I think the most interesting critique of Barbie as a brand, a character, and eventually a film when it comes out, is (will be) how these work together and play off each other. From what I've gathered from what Greta has said, her intention with this film uses this duality to validate the "you can do anything" and point out that all of those unfair and unhealthy expectations come from her being a literal doll. I think that's going to be interesting! I think it's interesting how in the current reality of the brand and the character, this duality plays off itself in a feedback loop. We have to be submissive and docile and pretty and inhumanely shaped, but we also need to be smart and capable and powerful, but not too much that we're not idealized.

I get so exhausted with the overly slimplistic dichotomy on both sides of this debate cause the reality is VERY CLEARLY in the middle. And also it drives me crazy cause I don't think anyone involved in making this movie has given any intention of ignoring that reality. Even the trailer highlights it in the forefront. The story is literally about how the fantasy Barbie sells is a lie, from what I can tell. Anyway... Point being: Barbie good or bad is a stupid argument because the answer is both. Which means that this movie is both. because it's also Barbie. But ain't that like the internet to oversimplify in extreme avoidance of nuance?

yes!! this is well said: barbie represents A LOT in our society* and having conversations about it takes time and effort. there are countless studies about what you've described here - toys' affect on children's self-esteem - and it's valuable to consider it all when we're criticizing.

i also want to elevate what you said in your last paragraph: And also it drives me crazy cause I don't think anyone involved in making this movie has given any intention of ignoring that reality.

so glad you said that! and this is probably what one of my anons meant about waiting 'til the film comes out. i am excited for the film! it will not score straight A's on my personal feminist report card because, well, i think my personal ideology is more extreme than what mattel would sign up for lmao. but i still want to see what greta created and i'm fascinated by what margot said about how barbie would interpret being objectified in the real world.

like, the film is going to give us A LOT to chew on in regards to girlhood, womanhood, objectification, etc. - how could it not? barbie is a kid's toy, a literal object! it's exciting that a major blockbuster will tackle these issues, even though i know it will be lacking in others.

(*since i am a swiftie blog, we can also discuss how taylor occupies a similar, and worse, space because barbie is a literal product but taylor is a human being)