#its the misogyny of the characters and the early 2000s writing in general. and the cringe dialog. but ya kno | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wc-confessions · 1 year

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Very sleepy rant incoming I just never got this take but

I don’t like it when people argue saying watership down is better than warriors is ignorant of the flaws in watership downs writing because - I don’t think it is?

Look, I know this take isn’t common but. I feel like the innate differences between these books in not only release period and how the authors attempted to fix previous issues speak to how well they are handled, nonetheless the writing because to put it very plainly watership down is extremely well told and written, often poetic at times and it makes great use of multiple literary tools. (“The primroses were over” being used to signify the beginning and “the first primroses were beginning to bloom” to signify the end)

Watership down is a singular book with one sister book (tales of watership down) written by one man in the early 70s, Warrior cats was written in the early 2000s and is series with multiple authors under its belt.

Watership downs most notorious issue is it’s sexism regarding the female characters and how they are commodified by the narrative and thus diminished as individuals when put beside our lead males. Warrior cats has several notable writing issues, including racism, sexism, and in general, a poor tackling of any complicated societal or individual matter. Not only is warriors really outweighing watership down in its notable issues, there’s also another bit of info to talk about here. At the time watership down as published, a majority of xenofiction titles often suffered from a very common issue in early writings; they were heavily male protagonist centric with female characters barely making any appearances/only being of note when they were a male characters wife, child or family member. This is not to excuse some of the decisions made within the novel - but to explain the societal norm at large at the time. Another xenofiction series, the animals of farthing wood had a large list of main characters who were all male, this being altered within the children’s show based on the books. Watership down definitely suffered from the larger issues that plagued most popular works at the time, misogyny being one of them, but Richard Adams, author of the book was made aware of the uncomfortable way the males spoke of female characters and seemingly sought to correct this later on with the publishing of Tales from watership down (basically a spin off book, not really a sequel, it’s purpose is more so for world building and some additional fun little stories for those who liked the first) in which we are given not only a female lead, but another female character of note from the previous book, Hyzenthlay, being revealed to have risen as second in command within the warren. There is an obvious attempt in this book to rectify the issues he’d been made aware of, which does not immediately free the original novel of its flaws, but shows that the author was able to take the critics of his work to heart.

Warrior cats was written in the early 2000s far after the womens rights movement had become a commonly known concept and name in the UK, not to mention the multiple other questionable writing decisions any sane writer would’ve likely turned away from. The series continues to struggle with misogyny and a poor understanding of how to decently portray difficult and dark situations for its young audience. It has made no attempts to correct any errors in judgement made whilst writing segments of the series and often doubles down on those errors which only makes them worse. There is no excuse for the writing to be this poor, no excuse for them having somehow devolved in comparison to a book written a good 30 years before it’s birth. Watership downs dark subject matter is often tied to the authors own experiences in World War II, (the gruesome nature of the story not necessarily the misogyny mind you) and it’s handling of such is very profound. Warriors struggles to even tell some of the most simple stories that have already been told before them in the hundreds by now. Watership down is a standalone book with honestly, an issue that does sometimes degrade the quality of an overall great book - Warrior cats is a series that has the opposite issue, it is built on so many issues that at this current point, stand out moments are the exception and what keeps people sifting through sand. The author for watership down had clear intent with what he wrote for the novel and a vision that readers can pick up on, though how we interpret it will always be different. Nobody can quite tell what anyone on the Erin Hunter team was thinking of when they wrote certain points in the book - nonetheless the artistic intent behind characters like nightheart. Warriors isn’t being artistic at all in how it attempts any of its storytelling - it’s fumbling with itself because nobody can make up their damn minds about what the narrative wants you to feel.

I’m sorry, I just really like watership down even when critically speaking of its issues, I’d even argue that comparisons to watership down and warriors aren’t fair because watership down was a singular book (maybe even in target audience, watership downs target audience is older though kids do read it still, it doesn’t suffer from the obvious genre issues YA books do) with a spin-off we can barely call a sequel and warriors is a series with multiple spinoff books - a better comparison might be guardians of ga’hoole or the previously mentioned animals of farthing wood, but the innate differences between watership and warriors I think only worsens warriors in quality. Watership down isn’t like godly or anything, it’s not pure or perfect and this untouchable sign of quality in the genre, but its still better than the entirety of the warriors series alone and is a better read for people who are willing to give it a shot even with the noted elephant in the room (even with the noted misogyny we do get some important does/female characters like hyzenthlay to the overall story in the book and again - tales from watership down is there if you want more but not necessarily a direct sequel). This might’ve just been me using watership down to make fun of warriors as a series and how bad it is as a contemporary work when compared to an older novel, somehow becoming more backwards than something posted during the 70s in the uk. How do you somehow not only stay sexist but add real life racist stereotypes to your book about cats that’s almost impressive

(Also to note I’m not saying Richard adams was a great dude since i admittedly do not know much about him just to clarify I just think with the issue of misogyny specifically he attempted to correct himself)

#confession #text #anonymous #warriors #warrior cats #warriorcats #wc #long post #ask to tag #watership down

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angelsdean · 1 year

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Despite claims that Dean calls women "bitches" when they reject his advances.

Uhm??? That is not what I said?? I said he called women bitches when they did something he didn’t like? Namely their enemies. In fact when he was attracted to a woman he treated them like a true gentleman. It was their enemies he was aggressive towards. And saying the word ‘bitch’ was directed towards women 3 times is fair and all. But how many of their enemies in season 1 were women and how many were men? And did he actually ever run into a female enemy that he did not call a bitch in the earlier seasons? Idk no offense or anything it feels like you’re taking this a bit personally. The tone in your post about how much he used the word bitch was kind of coming off as confrontational. I’m looking at this as a case of bad writing rather than anti-deanism or whatever everyone thinks is going on here :(

I'm really very sorry if I misunderstood that! From the way it was worded in the previous ask: "it was because he tried to fuck anyone with boobs and the minute a woman did something he didn’t like he turned around and called them a bitch" I read that statement as suggesting "the minute a woman did something he didn't like" in relation to the flirting / trying to sleep with them. Like, woman rejects him trying to sleep with her >> he calls her a bitch. But now I can see what you meant in the context of villains / enemies. And I do agree, the three only instances from just looking at s1 were directed only towards enemies and it's something I do want to continue keeping track of as I watch.

I'm also sorry if my tone came off as confrontational, I definitely did not mean for that either. I was mostly in "academic" mode lol so it was more about "disproving" the claim that he calls women (who are not enemies, but potential interests) bitches. I really find all of this fascinating and engaging and like you said there is a lot of bad writing to look for and also just, the show being a product of its time. Unfortunately early 2000s television was rife with casual sexism and misogyny and we definitely saw that leak into the show and some of Dean's behaviors. The writers have their own biases and bigotry too which is definitely important to consider when we're doing these analyses / character "studies."

I'm not mad at you personally, anon, and do invite you to continue to share things you find too and add to this conversation. If I came across as a bit defensive or confrontational it was less about you and your individual ask and more toward the general "fanon" view a lot of people (dean 'crits' or 'antis' or whatever) have toward Dean that often is not based on actual evidence from the show or is based on one small thing that has gotten exaggerated or misinterpreted in fanon. And since I've been rewatching recently it's just so hard not to be like !!!!!!! when I see how canon things don't match up with some fanon interpretations.

I have some other asks in my inbox that may have been from you ? I'm not sure, that I also plan to answer but this was the most recent and I just wanted to clear things up and apologize<3

#tone is hard to convey thru text sometimes i'm rly rly sorry if you felt like i was attacking you #i was just in my 'this is a thesis to prove or disprove' headspace #replies

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filmsbyher · 1 year

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To Be Tamed or Not To Be Tamed?

That is the question.

"Masculine and feminine roles are not biologically fixed but socially constructed."

In the 90s and early 2000s, Hollywood offered a counteract to the previous oppression of women and girls in cinema through the emergence of teen literary adaptations of classic novels and plays. These adaptations dismantled what audiences expected of a classic novel or Shakespearean film. Two films I believe stand out are: 10 Things I Hate About You and She’s The Man. 10 Things I Hate About You is an adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays “Taming of the Screw” concerned with gender roles and the institution of marriage and She’s The Man follows the narrative of his tragic-comedy “Twelfth Night”, that incorporates androgyny, sexual ambiguity and gender confusion.

10 Things I Hate About You follows the story of two polarising sisters Kat and Bianca Stratford. Kat performs the role of the “shrew” - non-conformist, not afraid to express her opinions (which are compared to “acts of terrorism”), and independent. Whereas Bianca conforms to traditional gender roles this is displayed through the mise-en-scene: her room has lots of accents of pink and flowers, decorated with stuffed animals and dolls creating a certain archetype. Her interests also lie hegemonically in line with her gender - fashion, boys and dating - which are considered mainstream ideals of becoming popular in high school. Bianca is a clear example of the ideals of the Beauty Myth - blonde, slender, and daintily featured - and as a result, she is loved for adhering to its demands. Their father Walter Stratford acts as a vehicle for the concept that things are learnt through different environments, and parents have a distinct influence on gender and how people discover their identity. He does this by developing a rule that Bianca can only date if Kat does too - functioning as a symbol of patriarchal power and influence. 10 things offers a different kind of teen rom-com heroine: Kat’s punk, individualistic outlook, sarcastic tone, will to speak her mind, and sheer fearlessness in challenging the structures around her, embodies the spirit of third-wave feminism of the mid-90s. By making Kat and not the amiable Bianca the main protagonist, the story makes the feminist “shrew” aspirational - who lays the groundwork for other alternative and progressive women and girls paving the way for a generation of feminists.

Similarly, She’s the Man also shows gender can be “performed” in overt ways. The film belittles teen girls and their interests - Viola is shown to be at the mercy of her sexist football coach who believes that “Girls aren’t as fast as boys. It's not me talking, it’s a scientific fact,". This slur of misogyny spurs Viola to pose as her brother Sebastian to prove her worth and talent as a footballer. The film goes further in destabilising gender expectations and subverting gender stereotypes: the women are portrayed as being confident, playing sports and getting into physical fights whereas the men are seen crying, writing poetic song lyrics and screaming at the sight of spiders. By having the characters display behaviours which are contradictory to what is expected of them, the film highlights the arbitrary nature of gender roles and stereotypes. The film also shows how gender roles and expectations are prescribed - through Viola’s engagement with femininity - like 10 things Viola’s mother plays a role in highlighting her desire for her daughter’s conformity to feminine ideals (socialisation of women to be demure and “lady-like”).

Whilst both films subvert previous representations of women: there are still problems within them. Kat’s initial feminism can be rooted in the second wave of feminism where the movement largely ignored women of colour and queer women, focusing on advancing the rights of affluent caucasian women: of which Kat is representative of. This is echoes Bell Hook's idea of intersectionality where it is recognised that social classifications (race, gender, sexual identity, class) are interconnected and that ignoring their intersection created oppression towards women and change the experience of living as a woman in society.

Some critics have interpreted 10 things ending to be Kat subduing to her feminism by settling into a relationship with Patrick and conforming to the social norms of high school. However I think that the ending can be seen in a positive light: Kat is practising third-wave feminism, by marrying her political beliefs to freedom of choice, showing a sign of her growth. Bianca is also shown progressively: by choosing the less popular man for the one who truly cares and will make her happy as well as punching Joey in the face for the objectification of her and Kat. Kat learns to accept the affections of a man who respects her while retaining her beliefs and feminism. She’s the Man introduced a much more fluid concept of gender to a younger audience than was in the current mainstream. It helped unconsciously create a space for transgressive sexualities and gender identities when neither were represented in the mainstream as well as disseminating these concepts into younger audiences eyeline for them to ascribe their own meanings and interpretations. Both films effectively explore the themes of feminism, identity and gender politics in both similar and contrasting ways serving as starting blocks for a journey to equal and progressive representation in film and media.

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desidarling123 · 3 years

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FACT CHECK: Did JKR sue people for writing Wolfstar fanfiction? [FALSE] [with sources]

So, if you're at all active in the HP fandom, and ESPECIALLY if you're on TikTok, you've likely come across a post or video claiming the following:

JKR LITERALLY SUED PEOPLE OVER WOLFSTAR FANFICTION! AND THAT'S ALSO WHY SHE MADE REMADORA CANON -- TO SPITE THE SHIPPERS!

I'm not sure who first started this claim or how its various permutations grew, but it spread at the speed of light across social media. This widely-circulated meme summarizes it:

For the LONGEST time, I didn't know what to make of it. The claims were vague enough that they seemed like they could be true -- after all, JKR is a megacunt and a renowned TERF. You don't need to fact-check either of those things.

But then -- for the first time ever -- I came across a video on TikTok claiming that what was being said was NOT true, and that it was being used SPECIFICALLY to stir up drama. Which was... crazy, to say least.

And that led me, well, to do my own research & fact-check. I've taken the original video's structure and added some exposition as well.

So here's the truth:

That 2003 case the above meme refers to? Not even REMOTELY what the situation was about. Hell, not even CLOSE.

In 2003, JKR sent a cease-and-desist letter to an explicit adult HP fan fiction website, called "Restricted Section". Here's the letter:

As the above letter states, the site was sent a notice because of overarching concerns that minors would accidentally stumble onto the sexually explicit content the site hosted after searching up 'Harry Potter'.

The hand-wringing over minor safety probably seems dated now, but it was, in fact, standard practice in the early 2000s - sexually explicit fan content was being removed across the internet for those exact concerns. In fact, just the year before, in 2002, fanfiction.net was purged of NC-17 content (which would happen one more time, in 2012).

I feel ridiculous stating it, but just to be clear -- in the above letter and all my subsequent research, there's NO evidence she went after Wolfstar -- or any ship, for that matter -- directly.

In fact, the letter goes an extra mile to declare that "our clients (JKR) make no complaint about innocent fan fiction written by genuine Harry Potter fans", but that, "there is plainly a very real risk that impressionable children... will be directed... to your sexually explicit website".

But that leads in nicely to the next point -- the website DIDN'T shut down, as per the letter's request. Instead, they added password protection to ensure only members older than 17 were accessing it.

OK, but why did JKR and Warner Bros go after this site in the first place? Most believe it was because of a widely-publicized article in THE SCOTSMAN that talked about the website. But, once again, this article doesn't go after Wolfstar in particular -- it only goes after Harry x Draco and Harry x Snape. The inclusion of latter was arguably what generated the biggest controversy -- the pairing of Harry, a fictional minor, with an adult character, in slash stories largely written by adult heterosexual women, was not one that could be cast in a good light to the general public. It's hardly a surprise JKR's lawyers sought to do something before the controversy got out of hand and worried parents started to make calls.

What I said before still goes, though. The legal core of the issue was ALWAYS to do NOT with the ships, but the EXPLICIT NATURE of the work -- and the (very real) concerns that the series' then-mostly-under-18 readership could find said works with very little as far as guardrails were concerned. (I know, because I was one of those kids)

TLDR; JKR did NOT sue people over Wolfstar fanfiction, she sent a cease-and-desist notice to a website that was not taking adequate precautions to prevent minors from accessing the explicit adult content on the site.

To be clear -- this is not meant to be a statement on what to ENJOY in your fandom ships. You can ship Wolfstar, Remadora, both, neither -- it really doesn't matter. I think the fandom is critical enough of the author to have reclaimed her work on our own terms, and people should be allowed to just, idk enjoy things.

But propagating straight-up falsehoods is dangerous, especially when it comes at the expense of 1) a safe fandom environment (see: the current fandom ship wars between Remadora and Wolfstar, which are difficult to watch) and 2) serves as a distraction from the ACTUAL garbage JKR engages in (of which there is plenty -- no need to make it up lol).

Also, truth be told -- inter-fandom ship wars don't generally add anything productive to the necessary conversations that need to be had about her works. The thought that dashing fan ships was a key motivator in her writing rather than, I don't know, plot concerns, is ludicrous on face, and gives fans a level of control over the original writer that just... doesn't exist IRL? And certainly didn't back then?

And again -- the books would have been VERY different series, plot-wise, if Sirius Black HAD lived. Him being in a relationship with Remus, confirmed or implied, has no relation to that decision.

If we have talk Harry Potter, I'd rather talk about just about anything else -- the racism, the misogyny, the lack of any sort of organic queer rep and JKR's inability to just own up to the problems in her works. But the minutiae of ship wars -- and the inevitable stream of disinformation that comes with it, sans any kind of concrete evidence -- is one I'd prefer to pass on.

SOURCES:

Cease-and-Desist Letter Copy: http://archive.is/HTLsq

THE SCOTSMAN Article: http://archive.is/VdEaY

Restricted Section Updates Page:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030815233612/http://www.restrictedsection.org/news.php

BONUS: The original TikTok video I came across whose structure and sources I shamelessly stole to read and build out my argument. I copied a lot of their wording because it explained it better than I could, you just get some bonus snarky commentary from yours truly

#wolfstar #remadora #atyd #all the young dudes #jk rowling #harry potter #fandom meta #fandom fact check

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lady-of-disdain · 3 years

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New influx of this trashcan of a ship here: thank you for your time served.

CW: S*ssR*n canon mentions, grooming, p*do mentions

I’m an ex sessrin shipper and I hate to call it that. I have enjoyed some sessrin content that is heavily vetted before I read it is more accurate (Au CD etc). I’ve been in this fandom since the early 2000’s and let me tell you if you go looking through that sessrin fics and art you don’t even have to go to the second page before you hit something that will make you regret having eyes. So when they say adult! That’s a lie.

Anyway the things I’ve seen posted today... horrific.

But the one that got me was someone saying ‘15/16 would have LEGALLY been an adult back then. So she was legally an adult and it’s fine.”

Bruh. First of all the concept of “legal” adult hood is pretty new. And “back then” women were seen as property because misogyny. So miss me with legalities unless you can point me to the case law and or statutes.

But in this last episode that girl was 13 and married, they said.

Wut? Did we watch very different things? She was MORTIFIED that men where @ her when she turned 13. She was kidnapped. Said multiple times she wasn’t his wife. Contracted bounty hunters to kill him. Like, that wasn’t proof of 13 being a good age to get married. It wasn’t a romance.

Why would anyone want their ship to be canon of the terms are so rife with misogyny, grooming behavior, and just general problematic framing?

Greetings nonny and WELCOME! I appreciate your stance as having previous experience with this ship, and I can relate because I too enjoyed fics of a VERY SIMILAR pairing (and hell even still do sometimes). But also like you under very specific circumstances (AU, time shenanigans, universe hopping, etc. Let’s just say the fandom my problematic fave is from is VERY well known for its AU lol.)

If there is one thing I’ve been extremely firm on from the very beginning it’s that fans NEED to separate their headcanon, and fan interpretation from the canon material. I don’t think there is anything wrong with interpreting characters differently from other fans, and writing your own fanfiction based on those interpretations, but being extremely, OBNOXIOUSLY vocal about those views becoming canon is an entirely different story. ESPECIALLY when the canon material is media that is marketed for children!

Arguments about what was “Normal” or “Legal” for the time (as wrong as their ideas of this may even be) are COMPLETELY MOOT when we are talking about a children’s show.

What would ‘Mulan’, ‘Hercules’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘Cinderella’, etc look like if the writers included “problematic themes” just because they were historically accurate? (Spoiler alert: parents wouldn’t take their kids to see them at the very least.)

I am all for letting people ship what they want, but there are two VERY IMPORTANT caveats to this creed: 1) That doesn’t mean shippers should DEMAND that their ships be validated. (Hell it’s super annoying when shippers do this even with the “vanilla” ships, like stop, let the creators write what they want, you’ve obviously liked their work enough so far to get so worked up about it, let them keep doing their damn jobs!) And 2) If your ship contains problematic material you need to be DAMN sure you are tagging your works properly, hiding it under a read more, giving adequate and VISIBLE content warnings, and most of all if it’s from a media that is marketed for children, and thus has a very large child audience, needs to NOT be in the main tags of that fandom.

Anyways, I’ve rambled off the rails from your original point anon, as I am wont to do, sorry about that lol.

#anti sessrin #anti rinsess #anon

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danwritestuff · 4 years

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As a South Korean I ask you, please, if you’re writing a South Korean character (not Korean-American, because I know jackshit about that experience): Don’t base your character on so-called “K-pop/drama culture”.

like jfc I lived in this country for 20+ years and I can tell you, most South Koreans don’t act/live like K-pop/drama celebrities. Hell, especially with K-drama, most Koreans don’t TALK LIKE THAT. Spoken Korean and Written Korean are two different things, and many dialogues in K-drama is based on Written Korean. It sounds very theatrical and dramatic to me and people... don’t... talk like that...

ALSO I s2g if one more non-Korean tries to argue with me how South Korea is LGBTI-friendly from the way K-pop celebrities express their gender and sexuality..................... I work with LGBTI+ activists in South Korea as a researcher. South Korea is one of the East Asian countries that has huge Christian influences in politics, and lemme tell ya, it ain’t pretty. We don’t even have an anti-discrimination law and the reason why the bills were flopped FOUR times since early 2000s is because people went “GAY RIGHTS?! NOT IN MY KOREA” so y’know. Please don’t.

Overall, just don’t base your expectations of how someone from South Korea behaves on what you’ve seen in K-pop & K-drama fandom. South Korea is a country with fucked-up history (30+ years of colonization by Japan, a massive civil war, dictatorship for more than a decade until democratization in 80s) and complicated social issues (overall sexism and misogyny especially in terms of legal justice, general racism and xenophobia, refugees’ rights) LIKE ANY OTHER COUNTRY. It’s not some magical place where everything is rainbow and sunshine.

Oh, and please don’t joke about North Korea and its leaders.

#rant #psa

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thesinglesjukebox · 4 years

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youtube

THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS - REACT

[7.30]

Personally I prefer Redux...

Andy Hutchins: I can't believe I truly love a Pussycat Dolls song in 2020, but I do. And how unlikely that was: "React" is penned by three Brits with no American profile whatsoever, Nicole Scherzinger (who got credits on "Buttons" and "I Don't Need a Man," but also, uh, "Whatever U Like"), and a fifth-string Scandinavian producer whose beat begins by riffing on what sounds like the immortal StarTropics theme and never gets too much more adventurous than some tick-click drums. It works so damn well together, though, with Scherzinger in full control of her range and tone, the well-written ("masochistic" sounds genuinely good on a pop song!) lyrics conveying the desired message -- "I know what I want, nice guy, and I'll push your every button to get it" -- and the production keeping spaces open for filigrees like the panting after "lose my breath" and a "rrahhh" signifying a feline belligerence. Maybe "React" is too cool for the States (put Dua Lipa's name on it and it's a top-40 hit!), and maybe it lacks the show-stopping bridge or skyscraping runs that a better singer would have permitted, but this is the work of grown-ass women who know they're good at their jobs because they've been doing them for 15 years, and that comes across in the competence and confidence on display. [8]

Brad Shoup: It's good to have Scherzinger back. I love the smeared dance-pop beat, and the way the measured syllogism of the chorus unravels in a heap. (I'm also a fool for a final chorus that introduces a new set of words.) She sounds marvelous -- cool and strong, and one of the few people who could put this push-pull lyrical trope over. [9]

Scott Mildenhall: Dead air is a crime, so heaven knows what led to the jarring snatches of silence in "React", but they're at least not the most jarring thing about it. In this age of SEO literalism, in which lyrics are assumed to be autobiography, and the vanguard of subtext is headed by Genius annotations, it's odd to have something sound like empowerment while reading like flawed character study. Should "sometimes I want to fight" sound like an affirmation? It's not the Pussycat Dolls' fault that pop songs are rarely granted nuance, and that's a problem that won't be new to them; on the plus side, most people won't even notice the lyrics. They could be lorem ipsum and this would still be solid: a tightly manoeuvred skeleton run of a standard that has remained surprisingly high. [7]

Michael Hong: For every rush of a line ("you're turning me cruel 'cause I'm just wanting you to react"), there's another that Nicole Scherzinger draws out, like a tantalizing taunt ("so call me masochistic"). This push-and-pull of urgency then withholding gives "React" its alluring sound, intensified by the track's strobe light pulse of a beat and the rest of The Pussycat Dolls' breathy harmonizations and ragged sighs. The only downside is the production of Scherzinger's voice in the opening verse, which sounds as if it's been pitched downward for a more sultry sound but just serves as a reminder of the manufactured nature of the Dolls. [7]

Will Adams: I have to applaud The Pussycat Dolls for re-upping their dubious premise of a girl group where only one of them sings over a decade after the fact. In 2005 it felt hugely cynical, as if Nicole Scherzinger's solo break had been pre-baked into the recipe. This late in the game, it has a "sure, why the fuck not?" energy about it. The surprise, however, is how much the resultant song has going for it. It actually manages to do the Zedd tick-tock chorus correctly (i.e. not punish the mix with the clock sounds), it sports a nimble bassline that evokes "Body Language", and Scherzinger is far more engaging a vocalist than Dua Lipa, who would have received this song in a slightly diverging timeline. But in the end, that gossipy periphery will endure, and it'll be just as annoying and just as much a detriment to the music. [6]

Edward Okulicz: The only Pussycat Dolls song I love unreservedly is "I Hate This Part," which I love for its desperation and earnestness. This has some of the same emotional connection in lyric and performance, where Nicole Scherzinger grew outside the Dolls' gimmick of a burlesque troupe gone pop for a song or two. Now it's a song or three. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: The Pussycat Dolls were best when they got out of character. For every expectedly raunchy single like would-be Tori Alamaze vehicle "Don't Cha" and cod-Middle Eastern "Buttons," they released something like "I Hate This Part," a precisely observed ballad ("We're driving slow through the snow on 5th Avenue" is the biggest clash of first line and band image since ABBA's "no more carefree laughter, silence ever after") sung like a wringer, or "Hush Hush" (an early Ina Wroldsen co-write, an early EDM-disco song, really about 10 years ahead of trends). Much like the Chainsmokers smuggled female singer-songwriters back into the zeitgeist, PCD made surprisingly emotive pop for a Svengali-assembled burlesque group called The Pussycat Dolls in which only one person sings. "React" is in this mode, a mussed-up "All Your Gold": club sleaze over a kitchen drama, about a relationship that's mundanely meh. The track sounds great:, too: brash brass, a beat that sounds like it's being continuously clipped out of paper with scissors, Nicole Scherzinger's vocals (maybe others', if you're credulous) alternatively so throaty and rich they're almost anachronistic, and airy -- the post-chorus sounds piped out of a smoke machine. It also sounds utterly out of place in 2020, but maybe to you that's a compliment. [8]

Alfred Soto: On first listen the vocal pizzazz reminds me what the pop charts lack. Repeated listens reveal an outdated way of dealing with relations between the sexes, particularly the way the high harmonies settle around the chorus. The tick-tock relentlessness of its hook grates on me too. Still, should you hear it on the radio, rejoice. [6]

Alex Clifton: There is a whole generation of girls who are going to listen to this and realize they are not straight, and I am extremely excited they have this opportunity. [9]

Leah Isobel: "React" is a portrait of a woman as uncontrolled emotion, which fits right in with the Pussycat Dolls' M.O. Their most distinctive maneuver in the 2000s was the push-pull between internalized misogyny and Bush-era empowerment. This dialectic made the infighting rumors a feature rather than a bug, but in 2020, it's gauche for women to fight each other for our entertainment, so their rage has to go elsewhere. It's a victory for feminism, maybe, but it doesn't change the underlying psychodrama of their work: The track portrays its performers as sexy but crazy, and doesn't do much to excavate the whys. And yet, despite or perhaps because of its retrograde inclinations, I won't not bop to this in the club. What can I say? I'm sexy but crazy, too. [6]

#Pussycat Dolls #pop #music #music review

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theastrophilearchitect · 3 years

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Let’s talk about manga.

I’ve been avoiding manga and anime for a few years. Why? Not because I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it, but because I thought I would. I knew I would, I would love it, but I had enough things in my life to obsess over already, so I wanted to avoid it for as long as possible.

Then, I tried to get one of my friends to watch Shadow and Bone, so we made a deal: she would watch the show, and I would read the first two volumes of her favourite manga: Death Note.

Just to clarify, this is not a Death Note review (though I will be mentioning it a lot) but just a ramble about my introduction to manga. I’ve now finished Death Note (which is only 12 volumes) and am planning to read others next, along with watching one of this friend’s favourite animes (because I wanted to read the manga, but then she sent me videos of the characters using their powers, and I just can’t say no to that.

So my friend started Shadow and Bone, and I read the first Death Note volume. At least in this manga, each volume was around 200 pages, containing 8-10 chapters, and I read the first one in its entirety in just over an hour. It was a great feeling--a 200 page prose book would take me about three hours start to finish, and I enjoyed it too. I now know this was partly because it was just the first volume, but it was fast-paced, it set up storylines and mysteries, the story was interesting, and I did like the art style.

I read it so quickly, and was able to log it on Goodreads. This year, I initially set my reading goal at 30 books, because I only read 23 books in 2020 in comparison to my 79 in 2019, but I surpassed that halfway through March, mostly thanks to audiobooks. However, it gave me the ambition to read 100 books this year, but I didn’t want to set that as my goal until i was much nearer it, in case my reading speed decreased (which I was confident it would). I read 12 manga volumes in two weeks. While there is a clear difference between the value of a 200-page manga volume and that of an 800-page book in the context of my reading goal, it was a good feeling. Which means as of today, May 26th, my reading goal is 120 books in 2021, and I have read 60. I’m halfway there, and it’s not even June. (I also would not consider 12 volumes to hold the same value as 12 prose books, but I don’t really care.)

Death Note is set in the early 2000s, when one day, top student Light Yagami looks out of the window in class and notices a black notebook on the ground. After class, he picks it up, and it’s a Death Note, a book in which a person can write somebody’s name with their face in mind, and that person will die. And so, Light takes it upon himself to rid the world of criminals, and becomes the infamous, all-powerful killer ‘God’, Kira. Throughout the series, characters are haunted by Shinigami (Japanese death gods), lose memories, and there is so much deception. In all honesty, I understand like 55% of what happened in the climax, because one person explained how they executed their plan, then the other explained how they undermined them, then the first one explained how they undermined them, and it was just very, very complicated.

Volumes 7 and 12 killed me. They killed me.

And the biggest shock to me: I loved the format. Reading ‘backwards’ took some getting used to--as in the original Japanese, it is meant to be read right to left, top to bottom, which was surprisingly easy to remember. I was impressed at the character design and the ease with which I could differentiate them. What in prose would have been told in narration was told in imagery, which sent the pace through the roof--and Death Note is apparently a slow manga.

This had a very different structure to typical prose books--where novels in prose have one climax, and the last book in a series has a final, overarching climax, this had several climaxes throughout the series. Sure, they built in intensity with every volume, but not every volume really had a climax. Where I tend to think of stories following a however-many-act structure as ropes, in which various threads are introduced, woven together, dropped and picked back up, Death Note followed more of a domino effect, the issue with which is that very few things mentioned early on foreshadow anything. For example, in the first volume, the Shinigami haunting Light, Ryuk, mentions a deal which will give Light Shinigami eyes, allowing him to see people’s names and lifespans when he sees their faces, at the cost of half his remaining life. This does come into play, but Light denies it and says he would make the deal for Ryuk’s wings--this is never mentioned again.

Also, I hate that I’m putting this bit last, because it means we’re ending on a bad note, but I do have to address it: the sheer misogyny in this series, published primarily in the 2000s, is astounding. The only reason I could put up with it was the sheer lack of female characters (which is not a good thing). Shall we review all the female characters in this series (at least the ones I remember)? It certainly says something that I can think of only four. (And this bit will have spoilers.)

First, Naomi Misora. Misora is female because she is the fiancee of an FBI agent, who obviously had to be male, which makes her female, because heteronormativity. Misora dies in the same volume she’s introduced. She investigates her fiancee’s death (after he was killed by Light), and Light kills her. Simple. That’s it.

Number two. This is the big one: Misa Amane. She’s the most major female character, and is kind of the worst character ever. She’s girly, obsessed with Light, and dislikeable. Also hate the fact she’s significantly shorter and generally smaller than any other character, male or female. At one point, it gave her measurements, and her wait was twenty inches. Twenty. Yes, some people have that, but for 99% of people, it’s impossible.

Amane has no agency. The vast majority of her actions are under orders by Light, except during her introduction, in which she does what she does with the intention of meeting Kira--AKA Light. Her motivations are to get Light to love her--which he never does. She kills hundreds of people for him, retires in her early twenties to marry him, and does everything he says at the drop of a hat. She gives up three quarters of her life, making the deal for Shinigami eyes to aid Light not once, but twice, after she loses her memory and the eyes in volume 4 or 5. On the plus side, she survives to the end.

Number three: Kyomi Takada. Takada is introduced early on, then dropped, and picked back up. She primarily acts as a middle man, when Light becomes unable to continue Kira’s killings, between Light and the acting Kira. She’s only female because Light communicates with her under the guise of dates, and could literally be replaced by a phone. Also, she dies. Light kills her to save his own hide.

Number four: somebody Lidner. I don’t remember her full name. She is female because she was one of Takada’s bodyguards, and they apparently thought it would make more sense to give Takada female bodyguards. Lidner doesn’t die, but is merely a plot device, as is every other female character.

Four female characters, fine, but when compared to every male character I can name, not so much: Light Yagami, Soichiro Yagami, Ryuzaki, Watari, Near, Mello, Ide, Aizawa, Matsuda, Mogi, Rester, Higuchi, all of whom have more agency alone than the women do combined.

The characters who are women are only women because heteronormativity deems they have to be. Even if we accept heteronormativity, not every other character had to be male. L could be female. Mello could be. Near. Higuchi. Matsuda. Aizawa. Mogi. Ide. Almost every one of them. But, hey, sexism.

But I loved it. I did love it, so when I finally finish a prose book, I’m coming for Tokyo Ghoul.

#manga #anime #blog #blogging #blog post #blogger #mangas #animes #death note #light yagami #yagami #l lawliet #near #mello #misa amane #bsd #bungo stray dogs #tokyo ghoul

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