i was 14 and i was walking through a mall by myself at 12am after my shift at coldstone creamery lol and a bunch of men started whistling and meowing and getting really close to me and they kept asking me questions and i kept not answering until i didn’t know what else to do so i said “i’m only 14” and almost in unison they said “we don’t care” i was so fucking scared i didn’t know what to do and they kept talking about how i looked and how my body looked and what they would do i was on the verge of tears i was all alone in a huge mall i knew i couldn’t outrun them all i felt totally hopeless until a maintenance worker came up to all of us with a huge industrial broom in her hand, i thought she was going to yell at all of us for being in the mall after hours bc she probably thought we were all friends but instead she cursed all of them out in spanish, threatened to press a panic button on her belt and then proceeded to walk me to the basement garage and waited with me until my mom got there to pick me up she had a death grip on her cart the whole time and a face of steel she looked so strong and i just kept saying thank you and she kept saying not to thank her because she had to stop them.
that was the moment i realized women were the most important beings on this planet and we have to protect each other bc nobody else is going to, she didn’t even know me, we couldn’t even communicate that well because of the language barrier, she could have lost her job for waiting with me in the parking lot but she looked out for me when she didn’t have to, she had nothing to gain from it, i’m 21 now and i tell everyone this story even though it happened 7 years ago, what she did that night helped me form and shape lot of my beliefs early on.
i was at a grocery store really late one night and some old guy kind of eyed me as i walked out of the store next to this other lady. She and I made eye contact and i knew she was scared too. we loaded up our groceries into our cars as fast as possible and I had way more bags than her so she got done faster than me. I panicked because i was sure she was going to leave so i just hurried faster, shaking a little, and then i noticed she sat in her car, watching me and making sure nobody came near. She waited not until all my groceries were loaded, or until my cart was put away, or until I got into my car. No, she didn’t drive away until I drove away.
And that was the moment that I realized how much women need other women. That we can’t win this war without each other and we have to be looking out for each other, every second.
my last year in new york city, i got off the subway around 9 or 10p.m. i only lived about 5 blocks from the f train, but i hadn’t gotten more than two before a woman’s hand suddenly touched my arm.
“that guy behind us is following you,” she said. “he was watching you leave the train car and followed you up.”
i hadn’t noticed him, or at least not noticed him following me. when we stopped outside a grocery store, he stopped half a block back and loitered. the woman linked her arm with mine and walked me several blocks out of her way to my front door and made sure i got inside safely.
another time, nocigar and i were walking home and at a stoplight a stranger grabbed my arm when i wouldn’t respond to him and tried to physically drag me over to him. she—who is, by the way, not a very physically imposing girl—ripped his hand off my arm and snarled, “don’t fucking touch her.”
protect your friends. protect strangers. there are good men in the world, but don’t wait for them to do something if you can do it yourself.
I was at a club once and my friend left with her boyfriend so I finished my drink and was heading out to the parking lot when three girls came up to me and basically surrounded me.
“Those guys behind us were talking about following you. We can walk with you.”
I have MMA training but have never in my life had been offered the protection and sanction of my own gender. This is so important.
GIRL CODE. FUCKIN’ GIRL CODE. LEAVE NO GIRL BEHIND. EVER.
yeah seriously tell us how wizardry’s done in the new world tell me how the wizards from france and spain and britain stamped out the brujos and the medicine men and set up their own schools tell me what the fuck the british raj did to fucking india because the patel twins are going to school in scotland and what are they told about their history, tell me about native american kids learning to say wingardium leviosa with hate in their hearts and tell me about wizarding rabbis bickering about whether you can use potions on the sabbath tell me about the slaves on their ships with their wands broken, mouthing curses in the dark tell me about the runaways that made it with garter snakes wrapped around their wrists that told them when they tasted dogs in the distance, tell me about the underground railroad and abolitionists with unbreakable vows and home-spun invisibility cloaks and disilusionments, using obliviate, using imperio, knowing that they served a higher justice, tell me about what happened to black wizards in the fifties, about what gates they were storming in the sixties tell me about queer wizards taking love potions every morning in their coffee to stay married to their husbands and their wives because what else could they do?
the world only begins and ends with straight white christians if you don’t bother looking any farther than that and too many people don’t and i am tired, tired, tired
so maybe this is only important to me, but about a month ago we had a pretty ‘typical’ suicide patient in my ER. she was 19. we gave her charcoal and made her throw up and gave her lots of fluids and she was able to leave our ER to get better help that next morning. but once she was awake, i went into her room and held her hand while she cried. i pulled her hair back while she threw up and rubbed her back because no one was there with her.
Last night, she walked back into my ER and asked for me by name. I came outside and she gave me the biggest hug and we talked for a while.
But let me tell you something: the first time i hugged her she smelled like blood and charcoal and puke. And the last time i hugged her, she smelled like flowery perfume and chlorine and chocolate ice cream. And it’s the most wonderful change i have ever experienced.
Don’t ever think that you don’t mean enough. Don’t ever think you aren’t worth it.
There is always someone who wants to hold you while you cry, even if you haven’t met them yet.
so this one time in my high school music class, the room was silent and all of a sudden you hear the Kim Possible ringtone and everyone whipped their heads around trying to figure out who it was
and the most popular guy in school whipped out his fucking phone
with the teacher staring at him
and whispers “what’s the sitch?”
i just want there to be one day where this doesn’t get a note and where my dash can live in peace
My father shot off fireworks last night, like he does every year for the 4th, but this year, some of the bigger ones kept falling over for whatever reason. I was sitting way away from everyone else, thinking if something happened, I would be out of the way. But as my luck always runs on the poor side, one of them shot right at me and I dove out of the way yelling “WITNESS” and my friend on the other side of the lawn yelled back “WITNESSED” and it was glorious despite almost getting shot in the face with a firework.
Early Feminists:
Oh hey, we see that you can vote. We would like to vote also. I mean, since most of those laws effect us too and all.
Men:
YOU JUST WANT SUPERIORITY OVER MEN!
Mid-century Feminists:
Hey, that whole thing about how you can have careers and earn a living wage outside the home? Yes that sounds nice, we'd like the option to do that as well.
Men:
YOU WANT A MATRIARCHY, THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT!
Late 20th century Feminists:
Hey we would like to make our own choices about our reproductive health, just like you've always had.
Men:
YOU ARE TRYING TO TAKE MEN'S RIGHTS AWAY!
Modern-day feminists:
Hey, if you could you stop sexually assaulting/harassing us and them blaming us for it, that'd be pretty great.
Men:
THIS IS MISANDRY, MISANDRY I SAY! FEMINISTS HAVE GONE TOO FAR!
Feminists:
Um...
Men:
THE END OF MEN IS NIGH! MALE OPPRESSION IS REAL! THE MATRIARCHAL AGE IS UPON US!
Rape Culture:
If a woman drinks alcohol and gets raped, it's partially her fault. If you don't want to get raped, you shouldn't be drinking.
Men at bars:
Can I buy you a drink?
Me:
No thanks.
Men at bars:
What the fuck, why not? Come on. Come ON, let me buy you some alcohol. God, I was being nice. Why would you turn down my generous offer? I guess chivalry really is dead. What a bitch.
If you are going to play the popular web game Agar.io be careful. If you misspell it as agor.io you will be led to a screamer website with a flashing image of Jeff the Killer. It is potentially dangerous to people with epilepsy or people who are prone to seizures. Reblog, it might save a life.
the reason I’ve stopped saying “most men/some white people/many straight people do X oppressive activity” is because if you’re a member of those groups, I want you to sit there and think, “do I do X? am I a part of that? am I an active part of the problem?”
if I say that only most or some people in those groups participates in X, that’s letting you off the hook! that means that you’re not asked to think about your actions and choices! and besides, even if you yourself aren’t doing X, chances are you know at least five people who do. and I want you to think about them too.
I honestly hate how art and media have kind of romanticized the idea of like “going off your meds and being your true self again” because like I started taking antidepressants and like immediately got a new job, found a place to live, improved my relationships with people in my life and completely reconciled with my sort of estranged ex-girlfriend?? Medication can be rad and while I realize that it’s not for everybody I don’t think anything should be trying to convince anyone that being on medication inherently makes you less of who you are
(Most) Medication is for helping you to be you again. The real me isn’t tired by just walking to the train station. The real me is not my anxiety or depression. They don’t define me.
The real me is who I am when I’m not anxious and feeling worthless 24/7.
Medication is supposed to be the chemical equivalent of glasses or a wheelchair, depending on the severity of impairment. It tries to help you compensate for what has been taken, been broken, or is missing.
In particular, i always hear the myth that anti-depressants give you “artificial happiness”… no, no, no. They give your brain the ability to be happy. You won’t always be happy, and sometimes you’ll be sad. But the happiness you’re able to feel when you’re on meds is your own, real, happiness.
swan lake starts out with the prince seigfried with his hilariously stupid name.
his mother is the queen of some unnamed kingdom, and on his birthday she not only gives him a crossbow, which is apparently common in quasi victorian times, but she also reminds him that since he is 21 and like an adult now that he needs to have some responsibilities. these include governing the kingdom and taking a wife, because you know, WHO RUN THE WORLD? GIRLS.
so he’s all like “gosh mom okay whatever i get it” and goes out with some of his broskies to go hunting with his new crossbow. he goes running after some swan and gets separated from his buds. the swan actually morphs into a woman and she’s all like “damn son please don’t shoot me”
he’s all like “man girlfriend you so fine but you’re like half swan and that’s kind of weird what’s your story?”
she tells him that her name is odette and shes a princess turned into a swan by a vengeful sorcerer rothbart who apparently has nothing better to do than torture young ladies, and trapped her and her swan maidens on a lake made out of her mother’s tears and they’re all pretty upset about it
at this point there is a lot of dancing of the swans which is probably the most memorable and gorgeous part of the ballet, but has absolutely nothing to do with the story other than being like “damn these girls are swans”
she’s all like “hey the only way i can get to be a real human again and save all my swan lady sisters is for a man to fall in love with me and swear it to the world”
and despite having known her and danced with her for only like 20 minutes by now he’s all like “oh course ill do that for you bae, in fact my mom is having a ball tonight you should come we’ll do it then”
von rothbart, who is listening in, is all like “hell no am i letting my swan bbs go” and he starts to concoct a plan to fuck up their love swearing shindig
act three flashes forward to the next night, with the ball. seigfried’s queen mom has brought all these eligible princesses from neighboring kingdoms to try to egg him on like “please get married already.” all the princesses are of course into it because hey, cute prince, and they all try to do their best dancing for him to remind him that they are the most marry-able
they dance with their entourages in a lot of traditional dances, like the hungarian czardas, until BOOM INTERRUPTION
in busts odette, or who we think is odette, and some dude. turns out rothbart has used his magic to tranform his daughter odile to look like odette, but she is a black swan, instead of a white swan.
this sassy bitch dances with seigfried and he’s completely enraptured- he totally thinks this is the same swan lady from the other night. she’s such a boss ass bitch with her rad thirty two fouettes and her like mad gorgeousness that he is completely convinced that she is odette, and of course he goes in front of everyone to swear his motherfucking love TO THE WRONG GIRL
this is the terrible moment where we see odette frantically flying at the window, and he realizes THAT HE HAS MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE
odile and rothbart laugh it up and leave in a flash of smoke because they think that odette is now going to be a swan forever with her swan girlfriends and seigfried busts out to there to go look for her
he gets to the lake and odette is in tears, surrounded and protected by her flock, who don’t want to let this dude in. she listens to his plea and forgives him
then she decides that the only way to free her flock of swans is to kill herself, and she leaps off the cliff into the lake, drowning herself, despite the fact that SHE IS A BIRD AND SWAN CAN SWIM, and seigfried, unable to live without her and wracked with guilt, follows her and jumps to his death.
with the two’s selfless death and eternal love, the swans are freed from their bondage and rothbart dies, as we see their eternal souls floating over in the horizon.
(in some versions, the two promise o jump off the cliff and the romise in and off itself frees the swans so nobody has to die, and in some versions, they fight rothbart and kill him, and in other versions, only odette dies, so i can see how this might get confusing)
*shuts story book* and that’s the ballet of swan lake
I sometimes have to pay for water, but with a phone and some wifi, I get to read whole novels about my favorite characters for exactly zero additional dollars
The next time someone rudely asks me “so… what are you?” as a way of trying to figure out my race, I’m gonna answer as nervously as possible with “hahah ahah ahaha… human? liKE YOU?” and then walk about 3 feet away from them before stage whispering into my watch “I fear the humans are beginning to catch on. I believe it’s now time to proceed with Plan E.”
What amuses me is the Plan E part. That means several other plans have failed. You are a terrible secret agent.
[sweats and whispers into watch] “They’re definitely onto us.”
i love the fourth of july cause its the one day a year i get to pretend my country is actually great and not full of problems so tomorrow im gonna ENJOY myself and WEAR MY USA SHIRT and eat BURGERS and WATCH CAPTAIN AMERICA 1 & 2 and SHOVE A FIREWORK UP MY ASS and im gonna have a lot of FUN WITH IT so if you really cant stand that blacklist #go usa
tho i encourage you to give it a shot cause its a lot of fun to just pretend youre livin the American Dream for a day
Like.
Yes. We understand that the US is still all but crippling to live in. Because we are all but crippled by the many, many issues with the government and the society. Give us this one day to be unreasonably excited about existing and pretend that we’re living the dream our grandparents told us we could.
I wish people would stop saying “It’s July. Well done for wasting half a year.” Did you make someone smile in the past six months? Did you stroke a cat or throw a stick for a dog? Did you learn a new fact or teach someone a new joke? Did you laugh, cry, scream or sing in the past six months? Because if so, congratulations for not wasting your time at all.
Who contains the right level of pre-mixed internal vitriol combined with a deep and obsessive love for MAD MAX FURY ROAD that can pre-write the post Academy Awards night review, eviscerating the voters for overlooking MMFR in the voting?
We know it’s going to happen. None of the characters are dying of a terminal disease in MMFR while simultaneously heavily emoting and talking constantly about how they feel about it as it’s happening in front of our eyes.
Most of the older voters will not have seen the film and, those that did, will have missed 90% of what has been so awesomely illuminated here in these Tumblr posts. (Can we provide mandatory cliff notes?)
Like Hollywood obituaries, which often get written months in advance of any aging star’s death, I think the drafting of this outraged-post can be started now.
I just wanted to mention it, because someone here is going to watch the awards being handed out to some very obviously pretentious middle of the road films and their heads WILL…
OMG ROFLMAO aaa ha ha ha ha haaa! Damn Mister Chris, okay, I’ll start preparing my rant in advance :D
MEANWHILE? GET PRINTING ON THOSE MANDATORY CLIFF’S NOTES. bonehandledknife‘S FILM THEORY POSTS WILL BE VITAL - PRINT THEM ALLL!
LMAO UM WHAT BUT ALSO SURE GO AHEAD WITH THE PRINTING.
I don’t think I have the pre-mixed internal vitrol necessary though for the post-Academy awards review. Mostly I’m just rolling about in a ball of yay over this film. I *have* seen a larger cross-section of people love this film than I expected and hope that when the ‘voting’ DVDs arrive for the voters that they actually sit down and fucking watch the movie.
Because if they can understand film/visual language at all, that’s about all it should take.
But I suppose that’s being optimistic about people.
I wish tumblr actually gave a shit about Greece right now. Everyone’s happy to reblog posts of pictures of Santorini and the Greek islands and to read books based of Greek mythology and quote Greek philosophers and live in countries built on the ideas and inventions that GREEKS CREATED but I am yet to see one post about the Greek crisis and it just seems like no one cares what’s going on. People do not have any money whatsoever, all banks are closed and accounts are frozen. ATMs are only giving 60 euro a day to people and they are soon going to run out of money. Unemployment is at 28% if I’m correct. 272.7% increase in depression. People are committing suicide because of the living standards. There has been electricity and hot water cuts in parts of Greece. Pensioners can’t get their pensions. The Greek PEOPLE are being blamed because apparently they are ‘too lazy’ but no ones blaming anyone else when it’s not the people of Greece’s fault. they’re being bullied and pressured by more powerful countries, the eu and imf to vote yes on the referendum meaning higher taxes and spending cuts putting the people of greece in even more poverty. not to mention that Greece already has a corrupt government to deal with. And no one seems to care that whatever the outcome is with Greece effects other countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy who are also in a very fragile state. I have family in Greece right now and my yiayia (grandmother) has informed us that she is currently living off her last 20 euros because she’s on the island Lesvos in a village and can’t access any of her money in her bank accounts. It’s disgusting that people are making jokes of this situation when the people of Greece are suffering as much as they are, and I don’t think they realize what an effect Greece collapsing will have on them and the rest of the world! All I’m asking is for the people of tumblr to open their eyes to a major issue in the world right now because even if it’s not effecting you directly, it’s effecting millions of people. Greece needs help and even if it can get something as little as more recognition and acknowledgment of how bad the problem is, maybe just maybe things can get better
There’s a bailout fund for greek people here: https://www.indiegogo.com/greek-bailout-fund.html. If you can afford it, please donate. So far €1,713,912 has been raised.
“If it fails, you get your money back. If it works, you’re a part of history.” - Marina Diamandis
The page says that if everyone in the EU gave 3 euros, it would pay for the bailout. I am Canadian, so 4 euros is about 5 dollars and 80 cents for me. There could be serious repercussions if we cannot help Greece, but beyond that this is about helping the people of Greece return to their normal lives and reestablish their country.Those who have the privelege to donate truly should consider doing so. This will literally cost you less than chicken nuggets.
holy shit i just realized i’ve liked you for the past 8274 years and i really wish i didn’t but i dO and everyone somehow knows about it except for you oh my god why is this happening to me
hey you’ve had a rough day so let’s get in our PJs and watch a cute movie together and cuddle bUT IT’S TOTALLY PLATONIC ALRIGHT
we drunk-kissed but you forgot about it and i don’t know how to act around you anymore wtf
we’re best friends and i’ve been in love with you for forever but i’m 3000% sure you just see me as a friend except why is this sexual tension happening rn
i will die protecting you. no question about it. i care for you more than anyone else in the universe and even though i act like you’re a pain in the ass i love you so much. you dweeb.
neither of us have kissed anyone before and what the hell may as well just get it out of the way. except hahah ha ha h a now i can’t stop thinking of ur lips why did i think this was a good idea ha ha ahah
we’re the Old Married Couple™ but lmao no we would never date each other. right? right?????!!!?
MY PARENTS WON’T GET OFF MY BACK ABOUT GETTING A SIGNIFICANT OTHER AND THEY’RE HAVING A GET-TOGETHER IN A FEW DAYS PLS PRETEND TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ME. THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT I’M HEAD OVER HEELS FOR YOU BUT IT SURE IS A NICE BONUS
it genuinely stresses me out that hat video of Ruby Rose binding with ACE bandages is getting so much traction. ACE bandages hurt so bad don’t fucking bind with them you can damage your body!!! It’s not cool and subversive to hurt your ribs!!!!!
What do we bind with then? .-. This is news to many people
real binders that were made for chest binding. ACE bandages are made so that they constrict, and this can fracture your ribs, or at least bruise and bend them. any trouble breathing experienced with ACE bandages also should not be part of binding, I breathe (and exercise) fine in my binder.
every option i am aware of is online, but you do have options.
underworks (http://www.underworks.com/ultimate-chest-binder-tank) is by far the most popular store. even though their binders were made for cis men who have gynecomastia, that basically means cis men with enlarged boobs, so it’s the same idea, and meant to be safe.
gc2b (http://www.gc2b.co/#!store/c205c) is a store that’s definitely gaining traction. you can find reviews on their website i believe but also on their tumblr, gc2b-apparel. everyone i’ve ever seen who had one felt much less pain with these binder because they’re designed by and for trans people, so they fit right.
were going around tumblr for awhile, but i’ve never used them, never have known anyone who used them, so i can’t vouch from a personal standpoint, but they do have a testimonials tag on their tumblr:
there’s other options - whether you ID as a dude or not, if you google search “ftm chest binders” you will find results, but these are the ones i’d vouch for most, the first being so widely used and the second two being by and for trans people.
hope this helps, if you want to know anything else about binding feel free to let me know!
Here’s your friendly reminder to not ever bind with ace bandages ever
Remus Lupin fell asleep on the Quidditch bleachers in their second year. James Potter and Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew woke him up, and they propped him up all the way up the stairs.
Remus Lupin fell asleep in the middle of Charms class. Peter Pettigrew took notes for the both of them all class and woke him up with a shoulder tap and a smile.
Remus Lupin fell asleep on the moving staircase in fifth year, and Lily Evans laughed so loudly she woke him up. He insisted he was just resting his eyes for a minute. They walked back to the common room together, and he threw an arm around her shoulder and they both pretended it wasn’t because he was too weak to walk on his own.
Remus Lupin fell asleep in the common room, late in sixth year, and Sirius Black found him curled up on the couch with his Muggle book open on his chest. Sirius took the blankets off both their beds, because Moony got cold so easily, and dropped them over the other boy. He picked up his book and put it on the coffee table.
Remus Lupin fall asleep in the library, on top of his schoolwork in seventh year, and James, who was quite a bit taller than the other boy at this point, lifted him up and carried him to to their dorm room as gently as possible, grinning at his friend and shaking his head. He put him in his bed and turned off the light, heading outside, now late for the Quidditch practice he was supposed to be coaching.
Remus Lupin falls asleep on the Hogwarts Express, like he always used to do. No one wakes him. No one covers him.
He is woken by the cold rush of his worst memories and a face that looks too familiar and far too young.
Look me in the eyes and tell me that was necessary
Taylor left her tumblr logged in on my laptop while she takes a shower and I just wanted you all to know that she’s singing “God Bless America” very loudly in the shower
How could you be against free college. Like if I think about student loans for more than a few minutes I think about jumping off a cliff have some pity damn
Because hundreds of thousands of people have already paid for their tuition. Should they be reimbursed? It’s not fair to the people who have already paid/ are paying for college. That’s why.
Yeah I love thinking how my kids are gonna cry and have panic attacks because of the heavy student loans they’re gonna have just because they want to go to a good school. Yeah I really want them to suffer just like I did bc yknow I paid why should they have it any easier than me?? I don’t want America to be better than I found it. Fuck future generations.
“Why the hell would you fix a glaring problem with the country when it is a fucking tradition?” has somehow become the response to all problems ever and it hurts every part of me.
this is our chance to fix the past generations mistakes
If this is the plan, be sure to vote in the primaries. Have to get Sanders the nomination before we can can think about the Republicans.
The schedule for the primaries for the the 2016 U.S. election can be found here. At present, primaries may take place any time from February 9 (New Hampshire, the nation’s first primary) to June 7 (the scheduled date for the California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota primaries). The schedule is not yet completely set.
If someone cheats on you they do not love you, remember that. If someone cheats on you they do not care about you as much as they say they do. If someone cheats on you it means that for a split second you were off their mind long enough for them to put another person in arms that should only be for you. If someone cheats on you, dear god, I hope you don’t go back to them because you are worth so much more than that.
Lately the concept of “Good Guy Ace” has come up in discussion.
The Ace is a good guy. He works hard; he is diligent, professional, and respectful. He is extremely skilled and competent (competency porn! What a great term!). He seems like the kind of man we would want to know in our own lives; he could be easily someone’s father, uncle, grandfather… The Ace is an older man secure in his strength and abilities; a man who sees people for what they can accomplish and thus does not resent a woman’s leadership, a man who lives the meritocracy he believes.
The Ace is compassionate and caring; he is concerned when Furiosa is cold to him, he bows deepest at Morsov’s death (in contrast to Slit who mocks Morsov’s sacrifice). He is intensely loyal; he shields Furiosa from Nux’s sawed-off shotgun (and Nux in turn is unwilling to shoot a fellow War Boy out of hand). And as aforementioned, the Ace is not the kind of man who would be sitting in the back of the War Rig with the other War Boys, saying, “Women drivers, amirite?” These values make him a good man in our world, and as far as we’re concerned, in any world.
But the Ace, no matter how much of a good guy he is, is still complicit in the system of the Citadel, an oppressive system with a foundation in dehumanization. He is trusted with protecting valuable commodities. The War Boys are literally giving their lives for commodities, because in this world, those things have more value than their labor or even their lives. The Ace also appears as one of the most pious; he bows his head the lowest when saluting Immortan Joe, and again when he Witnesses Morsov.
Uncritically, the Ace has no idea that the accumulation of these actions mean that he implicitly supports an oppressive system that strips him of individuality, adulthood, self-determination, and even procreation. After all, those chastity belts are meant to hurt people on both sides of the iron. As intensely manly as the War Boys are, they are essentially eunuchs, drones, interchangeable parts no more individual that a factory-produced bolt, emasculated by a cult of toxic masculinity. Immortan Joe doesn’t just control the water and with it their lives; he controls all the means of production too, even the reproduction of human beings.
So how do we know for sure that the Ace is complicit in the system? After all in a fiercely male-dominated, patriarchal world, he trusts Furioa and she trusts him in return. It is obvious they have experience working side-by-side. They move as a well-rehearsed team and know each other’s minds. But when Furiosa betrays their system, the Ace takes her by the throat. This is not the action of a man who is good in the context of our world; this is the brutal action of a man who is good in the context of their world. A man who is protecting the assets at the cost of friendship and mutual respect, profit above all else. Even though we know the Ace doesn’t necessarily think “profit before friends”, by attacking Furiosa and doing what he thinks is responsible, he is supporting that toxic worldview.
As much as we love the Ace, the Ace is sick like the rest of the War Boys, not only physically, and unable to see it. He has not had his eyes opened by the Splendid Angharad as Furiosa and the other Wives had. He’s carved out a little bit of goodness in an ugly world, but the Ace, like everyone else, is a product of his environment and the system they live in. It doesn’t stop him from being a good guy; it’s just that in their world, no one’s hands are clean. Everyone is complicit, no matter how good they are and how much one wants to like them. This best example is the Keeper of the Seeds, whose last planted seed is an Anti-Seed, a rifle bullet, in Furiosa’s assailant’s eye. Even she whose mission is to give life to the wasteland is a killer, many times over, and mostly unapologetic about that, though her seeds are a chance to redeem herself.
It is important to judge characters and people by the context of their world and their society, not ours.
So in sum: Ace is a good guy. Hell, even a great guy, in the context of his world. We still love him. But one may not want him over for dinner.
I agree with…most of this. But as a former soldier, I’d like to slap down some ethos here, and, in fact, as an interrogator, I have to say, you probably wouldn’t want to have ME over for dinner, either. ^_^
I’d like to point out that it’s clear the Furiosa is ALSO complicit in this system? She likely didn’t get her rank by being nice or even rebellious. She got Joe’s trust by, uh, playing the game. In fact, if you take it that she knowingly played the game in order to serve her own ends, it makes her, in a sense, morally WORSE than Ace or any of the War Boys, because she knowingly used/manipulated them. She claims agency and her first act of agency is betrayal. And that she must have done things she did not quite square with either. He might have a misguided or misaimed honor, but she is seriously crippled in the integrity department.
I’d like to also point out that fighting in an army does not mean 100000000% supporting the ideology of that army. A little research into the ‘comitatus’ would probably do some good here–military units coalesce around a homosocial code, so you tend to fight for your guys, rather than for that abstract idea. In other words, when I was in a firefight, I wasn’t like YO BALD EAGLES FREEEEDDDDDOOOM, or even YAY PRESIDENT, I was like, SHIT they’ve got Smitty pinned down. When someone betrays you in that system, FUCK YEAH you take it personally. Ask Bowe Bergdahl’s old unit how they feel about him. Be prepared for profanity.
When you live close to death (which most people who can fart around on Tumblr probably don’t) you DESPERATELY want meaning. You desperately want to believe that there’s some sense or logic–if not in a sort of ‘magical thinking’ ritual you follow, then at least in the sense that when you do lose your buddies, you want to believe that it was…for something, or that they went some place other than a plastic bag. Because if you can’t…it crushes you.
Think how much death Ace has seen. That might explain his faith.
Ace is really clearly the very common war movie trope called the ‘Immortal Sergeant’. You see this type in just about every war movie/novel ever, all the way from Kat in All Quiet on the Western Front. The Immortal Sergeant is good at combat. He’s at home there. He can’t quite fit in anywhere else, and he knows that. Because war is uncivilized, and once you get really good at crossing that line, you can’t really come back. Unlike a character like Rambo, the IS is not an isolated loner who can’t function in any society: he can function in his structured society. Why do most vets today try to make other vet friends?
I like both Furiosa and Ace, but I like them because they’re flawed. I think it’s a good reminder to everyone that hey YOU TOO are complicit in a system whose values might be systemically destructive of your agency, freedom, and self determination, which likewise ALSO participates in the oppression of other groups. YOUR SOCIETY TOO views you as less than human–your boss views you as a source of labor, and the drive in education toward ‘workforce development’ additionally institutionalizes the shift from ‘free human’ to ‘worker’ as the primary focus of education, your society too seeks to police and limit your sexuality and self-expression, (even tumblr where you MUST FIT INTO ONE OF THESE LABELS or else), and every place that takes your money views you as a mere consumer.
Saying that this is just something in his world, or that he’s doing the same damn thing you probably are…somehow makes him bad? WOW that’s really dangerous. That’s alterity to the point of self-annihilation.
Sorry for the posthumanist theory rant there at the end. Not really.
Thanks to both of you for offering interesting perspectives.
Going back to the OP, I wanted to offer a slightly different take on this part:
But when Furiosa betrays their system, the Ace takes her by the throat. This is not the action of a man who is good in the context of our world; this is the brutal action of a man who is good in the context of their world.
I think the Ace’s actions toward Furiosa, and in particular his last action toward her, are more complicated than that. Someone posted about this a while back; I apologize for having lost track of who it was. A lot of this is repeating that person’s previous comment.
Ace is loyal to Furiosa. He questions her three times (about diverting from the road, continuing despite the flares from the Citadel, and taking on the Buzzards rather than running them into their backup), and each time he accepts her evasive response at face value.
It’s only the last time he questions her, when the Buzzards have been defeated and she’s continuing to drive toward the dust storm, that he escalates. “Why can’t you stop?” When Furiosa doesn’t answer Ace is left with no possible explanation but the actual one: she’s betraying Joe. He shouts at her, “What have you done?” Again she doesn’t answer.
At this point, if Ace were merely “a brutal man who is good in the context of their world”, he could have incapacitated Furiosa. He could have punched her, or attacked her with some other weapon he presumably had access to. He could also have followed Nux’s shouted instructions to get out of the way, so he (Nux) could shoot her. He didn’t do any of those things. Instead, he continued to shield her from Nux while grabbing her by the throat and repeating his question, “What have you done?”
In the context of the kind of violence we’ve seen the war rig’s crew dishing out, I don’t think this constitutes an attack. Instead, it feels like a minimal escalation of force intended to compel her to answer. Ace still is motivated by his loyalty to Furiosa. He can’t let her continue unimpeded. But neither is he willing to attack her. Instead, he uses a minimally violent means to compel her to answer, while leaving himself open to the counter-attack that she actually makes.
It might have been me? I posted about Ace refusing to confront the obvious evidence that Furiosa had gone rogue on him, and that this is demonstrated by his question “Why can’t you stop?”.
I agree so much with what
said. It’s so easy to be swept away by Furiosa’s competence and her mission and the fact that she is running from the “bad guys” but she MUST have done terrible things in Joe’s name to rise to her rank. And her actions at the start of the film are motivated by feelings of revenge rather than nobility. She saves five women from captivity because they are Joe’s most valuable property. She sacrifices nearly 20 men who trusted her completely as their commander to do it.
The film shows us her tears. We are supposed to know she did something terrible.
“She saves five women from captivity because they are Joe’s most valuable property. She sacrifices nearly 20 men who trusted her completely as their commander to do it. The film shows us her tears. We are supposed to know she did something terrible.”
I think the funniest thing about this post is the idea that Ginny was only snappy at Cho because of jealousy.
like, Ginny doesn’t know Cho, at least not that we are aware of. Ginny probably doesn’t trust Cho. it was Cho’s friend who snitched in OoTP, and Cho defended her, something Ginny probably found out about. so Ginny has no reason whatsoever to trust Cho.
she knows Harry. they understand each other perfectly. so she knows the type of danger he’s in (the reason they broke up, to keep her safe because he’s in so much danger) and that he has important tasks to accomplish.
so you can bet your ass that Ginny would want to protect Harry, in any subtle way she can, so she stops someone she doesn’t trust from leading him on his task, and has Luna (one of her good friends, and someone she probably trusts explicitly) to take Harry to where he needs to go.
and I’m not attacking Cho, because she probably had good intentions, and wanted to help. remember, she went against her parents wishes to join the DA, and she believed in Harry.
but was Ginny having a ‘petty jealous fit’ about letting Cho help Harry?
