Musical Video Experiment of the Day: A Steinway is all it takes for CDZA to reimagine Kanye and Jay-Z’s “Ni**as in Paris” as “Pianists in Paris.”
[cdza]
Things 'n' Stuff
i can haz tumblr nao?
May302012
2PM
As a feminist who enjoys a lot of genres that aren’t usually…
As a feminist who enjoys a lot of genres that aren’t usually lady-friendly, it always irks me when people claim they have strong, feminist characters in their stories, but in reality they’re neither of those things. Sometimes a character’s qualities are debatable, but I wanted to make a list of things that don’t necessarily make a strong female character:
1) She is a woman/girl. Okay, so you created a female character. That’s a good start. But even Bella Swan from Twilight is a woman and I wouldn’t call her a good representation of feminism and modern womanhood. Is your character reflective of real women, or is she part of a stereotype? Do you even know the kinds of problems real women face? Does she face appropriate obstacles?
2) She can kill people, ergo she is a strong woman. Being a strong woman does not necessarily mean she can bash in skulls or toss people across the room. It means that she is psychologically, emotionally, and sometime physically well developed and can hold her own against opponents. Yes, it is refreshing to see female characters that are not physically wimpy and dependent, but if her character isn’t fully fleshed out, she’s just a tool. Try to make your female characters as complex and realistic in the story as possible.
3) She is a feminist. Okay, who says she’s a feminist? You, or her actions? Being a feminist is more than just saying “I’m a feminist.” Does she illuminate women’s issues during her story arc? Does she legitimately stand for all women’s rights, or just a stereotype of women’s rights (i.e. fauxminism)? Don’t make a straw feminist (see Feminist Frequency’s video on the Straw Feminist).
4) She doesn’t act like other women. Okay, this is really common in genres like fantasy and scifi, and it’s really problematic. First, you are assuming that all women act in a certain manner, which is not the case. Second, this most likely means that you are not writing a female character, you are writing a male character with boobs. This isn’t necessarily a good representation of womanhood. The point of avoiding stereotypes and cliches when writing for a female character is not to eliminate femininity and womanhood, but instead to adopt a more enlightened and diverse perspective on womanhood. Many things factor into a woman’s life that make her unique from other women. You have to consider things like class, race, culture, situation, history, and other perspectives that you design for her. This is also why it’s important to have multiple women in any story, because if you write five very diverse male characters but only one female character, it is easy to assume from the audience’s perspective that all women behave as that one female character does, and this is part of why sexism is so prevalent in media today.
5) She is the main character. Again, this kind of goes back to point #1. It is great to have women in main roles instead as just a sidekick or love interest, but if she isn’t a well developed, strong, and complex character, there’s really no point for her to even exist, other than to maybe be eye candy or a foil for a scenario.
I could go on and on and on forever and ever about sexism in media, mostly in fantasy, scifi, and horror (which are my favorite genres), but that would take way too long and I have to make a taco pizza (that’s a pizza with taco ingredients for toppings, if you were wondering). If you’re interested in this sort of stuff like I am, then check out Feminist Frequency. They offer great videos on a variety of topics concerning women in media. These were mostly just some tips I wanted to offer for young writers, film makers, game designers, comic artists, and other crafters of media about handling women in media. If people like this post, I may consider doing one for queer people, too…
(via fuckyeahfeminists)
1PM
I used this quote in a class presentation about RuPaul!
could i love ru more? i think not.
(Source: famousforbeingfamous)
12PM
Here is a Science fair project presented by a girl named Meme Gullible in a secondary school in Bullshittia. In it she took $40 and divided it into two parts. The first part she used to buy disease-ridden sludge at Burger McPalace. The second, to buy healthy magic food at Chris Traeger’s Literally the Healthiest Food on the Planet Emporium.
Then she poured heated water on both of them for some reason. On the magic carrots and fiber bars, she used expensive bottled water boiled in a TV Chef Brand pan on the stove. On the Burger McPalace offering (the Deluxe Poor People with Cheese) she used water boiled in a microwave, or Satan’s Oven as they are commonly known.
Meme read a half a chapter of science one time, so she thought that the structure or energy of water may be compromised by a microwave. As it turned out, even she was amazed at how many people will read idiot things.
It has been known for years by your strange Uncle Welber that the problem with microwaved anything is not how it signals evil aliens in space, it’s how it corrupts the DNA in the food so the body says, “WTF, bitch? Are you eating Legos? I’ma die now, thx.”
That is why, when you take the “meat” made at Burger McPalace and then douse it in radioactive microwave ScareWaves ™ and then eat it, you turn into the Incredible Hulk.
So, asshole, take your $20 and buy some fucking lettuce. Lettuce will cure all your imaginary problems, like hunger and homelessness. Plus, when you eat leafy greens from Chris Traeger’s Literally the Healthiest Food on the Planet Emporium and then douse it in pan-boiled unicorn tears, you become Captain America.
(via stfuconservatives)
11AM
“[T]ake the notion of “political correctness”. It is true that movements of conscience have piled demands onto people faster than the culture can absorb them. That is an unfortunate side-effect of social progress. Conservatism, however, twists language to make the inconvenience of conscience sound like a kind of oppression. The campaign against political correctness is thus a search-and-destroy campaign against all vestiges of conscience in society. The flamboyant nastiness of rhetors such as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter represents the destruction of conscience as a type of liberation. They are like cultists, continually egging on their audiences to destroy their own minds by punching through one layer after another of their consciences.”
Phil Agre on Political Correctness (via jonathan-cunningham)
Any time someone brings up “well I’m not ‘politically correct’” it calls for a mega-side eye. Because, what? Your desire to say whatever you want however you want to say it trumps the comfort and well-being of the people around you?
(via stfuconservatives)
(via stfuconservatives)
10AM
COME WITH ME ALICE. YOU’RE TOO WILD, TOO BEAUTIFUL, TO LIVE IN CHAINS. YOU BELONG OUT HERE. A ROSE IN A VASE IS NOT A ROSE IN THE FIELD. IT WITHERS.
WHERE WOULD WE GO, LUKE? WHAT WOULD WE EAT?
ANYWHERE WE WANT, MY LOVE, AND ANYTHING WE CAN CATCH OR FIND IN DUMPSTERS. YOU THINK YOU HAVE SECURITY BUT YOU HAVE SHACKLES. YOU THINK YOU ARE LOVED BUT YOU ARE A TOY FOR OTHERS’ AMUSEMENT. I WILL SHOW YOU FREEDOM. TOGETHER WE WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE. WE WILL SET THE WORLD AFLAME.
I DON’T KNOW, LUKE. YOU’RE JUST TOO DAMNED HANDSOME TO TRUST.
I CAN’T HELP THAT, ALICE. I WAS BORN THIS WAY. THE UPSTAIRS WINDOW IS OPEN. DON’T PACK A BAG.
8AM
i visited the friend zone to see if i could make some friends but it was just a bunch of angry men’s rights activists in fedoras???
(via stfuconservatives)
7AM
Obvious Fix of the Day: No matter the ailment/imposition/narwhal attack, Rhett and Link remind us: Rub some bacon on it.
(Don’t forget to look for the annotations hidden throughout the video.)
6AM
“Though no one would ever think of using the term honor violence (we reserve that descriptor for brown people who live somewhere else, motivated by religious something-or-other or tribal something-or-other), one-third of women murdered every year in the United States are killed by their intimate partners. In 2005 that amounted to 1,181 women, or three women every day. To put that in perspective, the UN estimates there are 5,000 honor killings every year in the entire world. 5,000 in a world of 6 billion versus nearly 1,200 in a single country of 300 million. In other words, a woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.”
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Feminists. (via popmuslim)
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
(via silverqueen)
Let me reiterate that for you all …
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
(via dank-potion)
I think you’ve missed a crutial point though, let me point it out:
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
A woman in America runs a greater risk of being killed by her husband or boyfriend than a woman in Pakistan.
(via themindislimitless)
I’m going to go ahead and guess that more men are killed by their wives or girlfriends in the United States than in Pakistan, considering women commit quite a few domestic murders in the united states each year.
(via espionagis)
The point is that we think of the Middle East as a terrible place for women with oppressive laws and honor killings, when the truth is that technically it’s more dangerous to be a woman here.
(via stfuconservatives)
(via stfuconservatives)
5AM
cosmo tip #254
they call it a money shot for a reason, every time he cums on you, take 100 dollars out of his bank account
#btw you make him cum by touching his boner a lot (in case you forgot) #why not give us half we gave you the idea #making a living in today’s harsh economy
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