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“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You’re so beautiful and so smart. And it kills me you don’t think you’re good enough. Like we have to always be extraordinary. But somehow we’re always doing it wrong. You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin! You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money, because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about you kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior which is insane but if you point that out you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood but always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged so find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old. Never be rude. And never show off. Never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory! And nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong but also everything is your fault! I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie ourselves into knots so that people will like us.” -Gloria (America Ferrera, BARBIE)

Why is this hannibal coded

“Nothing quite like the feel of something new.”

NINE INCH NAILS - THE ONLY TIME London, UK // May 24th, 1994

even if it is bait and said by a younger person, this genuinely does hurt to read on ngl...

She-Ra Callbacks: “It Doesn’t Matter What They Do”

Hi everyone! Let’s take a look at one of the most important callbacks in She-Ra, “It doesn’t matter what they do.” This phrase is very important because it is a part of Adora’s and Catra’s childhood promise to one another. Just as Catra’s and Adora’s relationship and the status of their promise evolve over time, the context in which we hear this line also changes.

01x11 “Promise”: Chronologically, this is the first time we hear the phrase “it doesn’t matter what they do.” The scene takes place after Shadow Weaver hurts Catra, despite Adora’s efforts to prevent this. Finding Catra alone and upset, Adora makes a promise with Catra that they will protect one another, no matter what hardship befalls them: “You look out for me, and I look out for you. Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other.”

01x02 “The Sword Part 2″: In this scene, Catra confronts Adora and attempts to renew their promise to one another. Unfortunately, it seems that she and Adora have diverging perspectives on their place in the world. Despite Shadow Weaver’s abuse, Catra is content to remain within the Horde with Adora and rise through the ranks; she even describes the Horde as “home.” In contrast, Adora now sees the Horde as evil and cannot bear to fight for a malevolent cause, accepting her destiny as She-Ra instead. In this way, Adora breaks her promise with Catra.

05x03 “Corridors”: After years of conflict, Catra and Adora encounter a common enemy in Horde Prime. Catra regrets her past decisions and resolves to “do one good thing in [her] life” by saving Glimmer, who is Horde Prime’s prisoner. In doing so, Catra begins her process of redemption. Importantly, she renews her promise with Adora, in a self-sacrificing way. It doesn’t matter what Horde Prime does to her, but he will never get his hands on Adora. Catra  is willing to suffer if it means that Adora will be safe.

05x05 “Save the Cat”: Although 05x03 is the last time we hear a variant of the phrase “It doesn’t matter what they do,” it’s worth noting that Adora also renews her promise with Catra in 05x05. She isn’t willing to let Catra go easily, and she insists that she will take Catra home. Of course, in this case, “home” doesn’t mean the Horde: it means being together, which is what they both wanted all along.

can we talk about the sheer accuracy of some of the in-game dialogue in Disco Elysium?

i’m talking specifically about the Giant Seraise Hornet, where Encyclopedia says this:

i work with honeybees in an apiary on my college campus, and i’ve taken so many yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets out of the hives. i’ve seen hives completely destroyed by wax beetles and hornets. but the thing that gets me about Disco Elysium’s off-handed analogy about the assassins is that this is literally true. 

the Giant Seraise Hornet is a direct reference to the Asian Giant Hornet (which you might know better as the “murder hornet”). 

from Penn State University:

and according to Wikipedia, the Asian giant hornet can kill 40 honeybees a minute because of their mandible size.

but it isn’t only the hornet-murdering-honeybee relationship that they got correct! they also got it right that sometimes the honeybees win:

I know that the developers must have put an incredible amount of research into this game, but as someone with a huge interest in the environment and beekeeping, it’s so cool to me that they got a real-life parallel so specifically correct. 

it’s such a direct parallel between the mercenaries and the dockworkers and the hornets and the bees. sure, the dockworkers could win, but only if they’ve coevolved. Apis mellifera, the European honeybee, didn’t coevolve with the Asian giant hornet… and those hives tend to be completely decimated.

just like the Hardie boys if Harry makes the wrong move. the mass slaughter in Martinaise depends on whether or not you as the player can learn to adapt quickly enough in seven days to save your colony. and i think it’s genius.

Oh these are some good words

Here’s a quick reminder to all the thin people out there: stop talking about fatness and fat people as if fat people didn’t exist and we weren’t literally right here.

Mostly I see this done whenever thin people talk about ”the obesity epidemic” or ”childhood obesity”. You are a bunch of thin people, a bunch of thin news anchors, a bunch of thin researchers, a bunch of thin commenters online…. Where are fat people’s opinions? Where are fat activists’ opinions? Is it proper journalism to only acknowledge the thin people and their words and their research?

Thin journalists and public figures and news anchors and what have you, milk money out of people by fear-mongering with fat bodies. Famous media doesn’t even want to talk about research that contradicts current ideas of fatness, or fat activists’ words, because readers’ (or watchers’/listeners’) hatred and fear gives them more money (and also less criticism). It pushes this one-sided narrative of fat people’s bodies onto us that thin people control almost completely.

Was the man who on public television said that fat people should try the diet of concentration camp victims, a fat person himself? F*ck no. But we give voice to people like him instead of giving voice to actual fat people (…reminds me of something called oppression).

Whenever you talk about fat people or fatness or weight, remind yourself that we fat people are literally right here. Your audience will never consist purely of thin people.

I spent last night looking at Neocities sites and here are my takeaways:

There's a real push to keeping the internet weird, open and less corporate-driven -- info on bypassing paywalls, protecting your data, archiving web media and basic coding/tech literacy.

(I found one tutorial on how to make a pop up that detects whether someone has an ad blocker and suggests they install one if they don't! Love that.)

There's also resources on finding the kind of internet that isn't the default experience anymore - alternate search engines I hadn't even heard of, human-made link lists and webrings. (Webrings! Turns out they never went away!)

If any of that sounds interesting to you, by the way - sadgrl.online has a lot of it and is possibly the best thing on the internet????

The "90's web" aesthetic is really fun and nostalgic, but I particularly loved seeing some people bring the better parts of the "modern internet" into it. What if we had weird, eye-searing personal sites BUT with plaintext alternatives for accessibility purposes? CW for flashing lights and unreality triggers?

(Again sadgrl comes in with a lot of resources for making your website accessible.)

Most of all, I'm honestly emotional about all the sites I found that were like, "hi! I'm 14 and this is my website where I talk about stuff I like haha."

It's so good that so many kids and teens who never experienced the "old internet" are still finding stuff like this and making their own weird stuff! Not just because weird websites are more fun, but because these skills are being passed down.

Anyway it's great and who knows maybe I'll make my own site sometime to keep horror media recommendations or something.

“face the truth as it is instead” disintegrated him