“Leonard Nimoy, who played the most famous TV scientist of all time, Mr. Spock, came from an arts and theater background and in real life is nothing like his character. Yet he told me that because Mr. Spock and “Star Trek” have inspired so many young viewers to become scientists, researchers who meet him are always desperate to give him lab tours and explain the projects they’re pursuing in peer-to-peer terms. Mr. Nimoy nods sagely and intones to each one, ‘Well, it certainly looks like you’re headed in the right direction.’”—NYT (via gq)
oh my GOD so i was talking to a buddy in psychology and then this kid came in who looked exactly like him and gave him a book he’d forgotten at home
and i went “holy shit you have a twin?!?” and he was like “yeah! his name is jason!” and i was like “????? i thought YOUR name was jason”
long story short i have one of them in my math class and another in my psychology class and i’ve developed a friendship with both of them but i thought they were the same person this entire time
remember this post? not-jason is refusing to tell me his name and everyone’s keeping it from me so i’m just calling him not-jason
the whole “why do girls travel in packs when they go to the bathroom lol” joke gets a lot less funny when you realize that it’s because we’ve had it etched and engraved into our minds since our parents first started dropping us off at the movies or at the mall that we absolutely always need to stick together with our girlfriends no matter what, even when we go to the bathroom, because the bigger the group we were in, the smaller the chances were of us being harassed or abducted by creepy older men in public.
I’ve started to think about this a lot. Like I think it’s almost instinctual for girls to go to the bathroom together for SAFETY. Not because we’re “silly girls lol”
so I work at a library now and during training we were shown each section and how they’re organized bluh bluh normal stuff, until we got to the 680s and my boss sighed at this shelf nearly busting from the weight of a shit ton of yarn books. now you may be wondering “how much is a shit ton of yarn books exactly max???” well let’s just say it’s about 2 shelves worth crammed onto one.
so when we got to this area my supervisor looked at us new pages and said in the most serious voice, “if anyone EVER gives you book donations never EVER accept donations of yarn books. EVER.” and we all laughed but deep down in the pit of my stomach I knew that was not a joke.
fast forward to a month later (today) and my shift starts pretty normally, I’m casually chatting with my co worker about video games and sorting books in the workroom when this couple walk into our workroom with big boxes saying they wanted to donate some books. so my coworker nods and says something about just leaving them there and he’ll grab our manager. so they put down these boxes and leave. so my manager comes along exclaiming how nice it is to get such a big donation and so she walks to the boxes, opens them, and starts shouting “JAMES GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW JAMES IT HAPPENED AGAIN” and so now I’m interested and I walk over and it just looks like boxes filled to the brim with books until I see the books all had library stickers on them and all have the numbers 680. so james comes running over and sees them and drops to his knees and starts shaking his head.
so then we got the details. apparently all libraries in my city all have too many yarn books and since you can technically check out a book and return it to any library and they’ll just shelve it there, all libraries just try and get rid of the books by tricking other libraries into taking them in. ways of this happening is staff from one library checking out the maximum amount they can of yarn books and dropping books around another library, or just viciously shoving these books through our returns, and now this, and apparently it’s a full out war with war maps and planning sheets written inside these yarn books. so please for the love of god never donate yarn books to your local library
If anyone ever complains about celebrity culture today, or despairs at how we’re all obsessed with actors, just hit them with some facts about acting in Imperial Rome:
Romans were obsessed with actors called pantomimes, masked, silent dancers who told stories through movement, not unlike our modern ballet dancers. You might not think that sounds exciting, but people went apeshit over them.
Seriously. People formed fan clubs for their favourite pantomimes. There is an inscription on a wall in Pompeii that gives endorsement to a political candidate from the Paridiani - the fan club of the pantomime Paris. The Paridiani were like the ancient equivalent of our Hiddlestoners and Cumberbitches.
These fan clubs could get really, really violent. They formed factions that would sit together at the theatre, and brawls often broke out as they fought over their favourites. (For some reason, riots hardly ever occurred at the amphitheatre, where people were getting murdered and torn apart by beasts, but at the theatre, where they were watching ballet dancers of all things, riots broke out all the time. Unbelievable.)
In 14 CE the populace rioted when one of the pantomime actors hired
for the Augustalia refused to perform unless his pay was
increased; the tribunes had to request an emergency meeting of the
Senate so they could beg for more money before the people tore them apart. (Dio
56.47.2).
I cannot overstate how serious some of these theatre riots were. In Tiberius’ reign, it is believed that the rivalry between the pantomime fan clubs was the biggest threat to law and order in the city of Rome. They were so bad they required Senate intervention. Actors
were targeted and punished for inflammatory behaviour, expenditure on
entertainment was slashed, and the crowd was brought to heel by threats of exile for
disorderly conduct. They were threatened with exile to stop the fighting. Suddenly the Cumberbitches don’t seem so bad.
Sometimes the rioting and the licentious behaviour of the actors meant that emperors would banish entire theatre troupes from the city of Rome, or from Italy itself, to keep order.
The rivalry between the actors themselves was no less intense. At one
performance, the pantomime Pylades heckled his rival (and former pupil)
Hylas, who was playing Blinded Oedipus, by calling out “You’re seeing!”
In another story, Pylades was playing Insane Hercules when
the spectators heckled him for using inappropriate gestures. Pylades
ripped off his mask and yelled, “Fools! I am playing a madman!” and tried to fight the audience. (Macrob
Sat. 2.7.15-17.)
This same Pylades (he got around a lot) also shot
actual poisoned arrows into the audience when he was playing Hercules.
Similarly, the tragic actor Aesopus (not a pantomime) is said to have gotten so into his role as the villain Atreus that he actually killed one of the servants crossing the stage.
Emperor Caligula was so passionate about acting that when a clap of thunder interrupted the performance of his
favourite pantomimes, he tried to fight the sky. Seneca says: “Emperor
Caligula was angry with heaven because it kept drowning out
his pantomime actors… and when his revelry was terrified by lightning
bolts (which must have fallen short of their mark!) he called on Jupiter
for a fight to the death, exclaiming the Homeric verse: “Either lift me
up, or I will lift you!” (De Ira, 1.20.8).
Many emperors and aristocrats had pantomimes as boyfriends (Maecenas, Caligula, Nero, etc.) Those chosen as imperial consorts were the best of the best; it would be like monarchs or presidents today taking Oscar winners as their lovers. Tom Hanks and Vladimir Putin, anyone?
Certain emperors became so caught up in the celebrity and entertainment-fuelled culture of Imperial Rome that they started acting themselves (something that was hugely degrading for any freeborn person, but especially an aristocrat or an emperor to do). Caligula was assassinated when he was on his way to the theatre, to prevent him from making his public debut as an actor. The famous Nero often performed and acted in tragedies, weirdly enough, while wearing masks fashioned after his own face, or (if he were playing a woman’s role) after the face of his dead wife Poppaea, whom he kicked to death. Nero was so into performing that he forced people to stay and watch him, and there are (probably exaggerated) stories of women giving birth and men shamming death so they could escape because no one was allowed to leave. (Could you even imagine Barack Obama starring in Broadway shows? Or Queen Elizabeth spending her nights playing Lady Macbeth at the Globe? Incredible.)
People complain today about girls being obsessed with actors, but it was the same in Rome. Juvenal says: “When nancy-boy Bathyllus is dancing the Leda pantomime, Tuccia wets herself. Apula whimpers, just as if she were in a man’s embrace, drawn-out and with sudden anguish.” (Satires, 6.63-5). I need a cold shower.
Another, humorous description of female infatuation with actors: “Some women burn for sordid folks and cannot rouse desire
unless they see either slaves or servants in short tunics. The arena ignites
some, or a mule-driver flooded with dust, or an actor made low by exhibiting
himself on stage. My mistress is one of these; she jumps all the way from the
orchestra and the first fourteen rows and with the plebs in the upper seats seeks
what she loves. (Petronius, Satyricon, 126).
Empresses were not immune either, and pantomimes were involved in sex scandals at the highest level. The Empress Messalina forcibly seduced Mnester; the Empress Domitia Longina seduced Paris. (Both of the actors were executed.)
And that doesn’t even scratch the surface!
In conclusion, if you think our modern obsession with celebrities or the tendency for teenage girls to obsess over actors is in any way new, think again. This has been happening since the years BC. It happened in Greece, it happened in Rome, it happened in Shakespeare’s time. At every point in history, people have been obsessed with actors and celebrities. Just be grateful we don’t have to watch our world leaders acting anymore.
Me: Wow!!! There are so many great fics written for Darcy, who is the main character in a lot of them! Now I want to read about the other strong female characters in the MCU! Like Helen Cho, who is super smart and amazing and nearly died trying to stop Ultron and is actually the reason why Vision exists in the first place!!!
Me: …what?
I’m sorry but i feel like to say something. First of all , showing hate to another female is not bring any help.
2. It’s not about race but about the occupation of the character you want to write about. It’s really difficult to write about canon character in science , the writers might turn them into OOC or they won’t feel good enough with the lack of sophisticated knowledge.
3.There’s lots of Darcy fic cause this fandom has been together for a long time since maybe 2011 and people stick together. Also, some writers prefer to write funny/outgoing character with so much sass and no canon story/background. The writers will not get criticized for writing too much girly/funny/whiny character in doing canon char.
4. For the newcomers , they want to have a try writing , they will write Darcy first cause it’s easy and then they start with other canon characters later.
5. In fandom world, there’s lots of misogyny and prejudice to women already. We should stand together and help each other. I think we should try making suggestion/comment in a good way until someone get interested.
I still hope you or someone will start writing fic about Marvel women. I’ve been waiting for a long time too. I’m sorry for my broken English, i’m not protecting anyone. I just think women should help each other in such a men-dominated world like this.
Dolly Parton once lost a Dolly Parton look alike contest to a fucking drag queen.
Charlie Chaplin once failed to even place at a Charlie Chaplin impersonator contest.
Hugh Jackman went to comic con as Wolverine, only 2 people noticed him and one told him he was too tall.
Christopher
Reeve use to go to a restaurant in costume when filming Superman. When
he went in the Superman costume he was mobbed by people all the time.
When he went in the Clark Kent costume no one realized he was
Christopher Reeve.
Ben Carson is such a great example of how the concept of raw intelligence doesn’t exist, and that people can have wildly varying types of intelligence. This man is the best brain surgeon in America. Possibly the world. He invented a new way to treat seizures. He separated conjoined twins in a surgery that everyone else said was impossible. And he thinks going to prison makes you gay. He thinks the pyramids were grain silos built by the biblical Joseph.
So maybe you suck at something because in one area you’re Ben Carson The Politician but in another area you might be Ben Carson The Neurosurgeon.
I just had the most invigorating conversation during the break in my class when all the dudes left the room and it became just a round table of women talking about ernest hemingway
“im so tired of being compared to the SEA”
“do you ever think his creative process was just whipping out his dick and sadly slapping it against a typewriter”
Not over the fact that Melissa Rosenberg, who wrote Jessica Jones, was the screenwriter for all the Twilight movies. Killgrave is the deconstruction and brutal condemnation of characters like Edward Cullen: powerful men with a dark past who fixate on the heroine, deeming her exceptional, stalking and controlling her and calling it love – men who claim to know the heroine, know what’s good for her, better than she knows herself.
Guess we know what she really thought of Edward now, ha.
oh my god ok, you guys, so @blackdogrunning and i were talking about rpf and crackfic, and something amazing has occurred to us, which is this:
even before team leverage was team leverage, they were all (save nate) pretty well known, in certain parts of the population, for doing what they do. but you know what happens with any group of well-known people?
THAT IS CORRECT, FRIENDS, IT IS FANDOM. consider the way that mattingly says, ‘wait, the parker?’ and his face is like holy shit this is all my guilty spank bank fantasies come to life. somewhere in the leverage universe, in some weird corner of the internet (lbr prob on ao3) there lives rpf crime fandom. it pops up every yuletide and normal people who aren’t criminals are never sure if it’s, like, rpf, or if there was an unaired pilot for something that didn’t get picked up, or what, but there it is, every year!
so starting even before team leverage gets together, we’ve got, like:
infinite fic about sophie’s backstory, none of which is anywhere close to the truth, all of which she reads, some of which she uses to create new personas, none of which she will ever admit to
(it’s still kinda flattering tho)
there’s a part of fandom that’s convinced that she’s the descendant of the grand duchess anastasia and the government is after her, and that’s *very* flattering, even though it’s obviously ridiculous
there’s another theory going around that she’s actually twins, or triplets, because surely no single person could–
shippy fic about hardison and cha0s. and hardison KNEW THAT WOULD HAPPEN because he knows how the internet works, ok, and it makes him kinda crazy because that dude is the WORST and he would never do THAT, and certainly not in the weirdly domestic way that some of these fics suggest
# LEVERAGE # ELIOT SPENCER # ALEC HARDISON # PARKER # SOPHIE DEVEREAUX # LIKE I’M NOT EVEN SORRY ABOUT THIS # WE’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT IT FOR LIKE THREE HOURS # AND WE’RE STILL FUCKING GOING # APPARENTLY WE’RE GOING TO DIE IN THIS UTTERLY RIDICULOUS BIN # SO I HOPE THAT EVERYONE IS COOL WITH ME REBLOGGING MY OWN SHIT SO I CAN ADD TO IT # BECAUSE THIS IS ENDLESSLY HILARIOUS TO ME # LIKE ENDLESSLY # E N D L E S S L Y # THINK OF THE SWEET SUMMER CHILDREN WHO READ THE YULETIDE FIC AND WERE LIKE WOW THAT WAS GREAT # AND THEN SUDDENLY ARE NECK DEEP IN WEIRD CRIME FANDOM # AND THEIR ONGOING FRUSTRATION THAT THEY CAN’T FIND THE SOURCE ANYWHERE # LIKE WHAT # IS IT REGION LOCKED # IS IT ONLY AVAILABLE ON VHS IN CZECH # WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE # SORRY THAT I’M BASICALLY THE WORST Y'ALL - @bydaybreak
au where everyone is born with a very unique tattoo on their ankle, nobody else in the world has that tattoo.
every time you fall in love with someone, their tattoo appears somewhere else on your body. (not necessarily soulmates, just who you fall in love with.)
imagine people who fall in love easily having their bodies completely covered in tattoos.
aromantics who only have their own ankle tattoo on their body.
people who have love affairs having to cover up the other secret tattoo from their spouse/partner.
a new tattoo appearing on a celebrity’s body in new photos and a very lucky fan (who had recently met the celebrity) realizing that it’s their tattoo.
elderly ladies sitting around tables in nursing homes telling the story behind each of their tattoos.
kindergartners who giggle as they look at their own ankle tattoos together and dream about the future tattoos they’ll have when they’re all grown up.
people trying their best to deface tattoos of ex-lovers who broke their hearts, but they can never go away.
just think about this, guys.
ok but when u realize you have your partners tattoo and yours never shows up on them
Why do you want me to do sad things? WHY? Also, I dislike that these marks are just for romantic love. Why can’t you have one on each ankle, one for romance and one for platonic love?
- Imagine aromantics who one day see their romantic mark on someone, pulling them aside and explaining that they’ll never reciprocate that way. Imagine them becoming friends and the joy they both feel when the romantic mark slowly becomes platonic.
- Imagine a child learning about marks in school and going home to ask to see their platonic marks on their parents. Except only one parent has a mark…
- Imagine obsessive love, dangerous love, making the mark on a person’s skin twist a little, go jagged and smeared.
- Imagine moments of intense love making the mark glow.
- Imagine a couple where one person suddenly develops a new mark they won’t discuss, making the other confused and suspicious… until they reveal that they’re pregnant.
- Imagine that reincarnation exists, and that’s the only way a mark can be duplicated perfectly. People looking at paintings and sculptures and wondering if someday an archeologist will discover a depiction of their mark.
if your stomach’s sensitive because of anxiety, by all means spread out the food you eat over the course of the day instead of having large meals, just don’t…not eat. you will go into hypoglycemic shock and that will suck.
By the way, symptoms include:
Shakiness.
Nervousness or anxiety.
Sweating, chills and clamminess.
Irritability or impatience.
Confusion, including delirium.
Rapid/fast heartbeat.
Lightheadedness or dizziness.
Hunger and nausea.
(because of the nausea, eating might not feel like the thing to do at first. I’d suggest drinking a coke or something.)
I’ve dealt with sugar crashes before and I’ve collapsed and whited out. I’ve had friends do it too. If you think you’re going into hypoglycemic shock, and if there’s anyone else near by, tell them you think it’s happening, even if you’re not prone or it’s never happened before. If your’e alone, make your way slowly to the kitchen/wherever you have food/drinks. The standard rule is to take in 15 oz of a sugary drink (orange juice and soda–not diet–are the best) and wait 15 minutes to see if it’s over, then keep doing that until your sugar is stabilized. Then you can eat. If you think you’re about to collapse, especially if you start to feel dizzy, sit down and lay down or lean against something. Don’t risk injury, it’s better to pass out while you’re laying down than it is to collapse and hurt yourself.
luke cage is a freaking dreamboat and here are ten reasons why:
says cute things like “sweet christmas”
flirts with girls at his bar. can you imagine getting flirted with by luke cage? having him lean over and say something really sweet and sincere? i would tip him like 200% without thinking about it
likes dogs
is genuinely offended by the idea that he might hurt dogs
shows jessica his powers by putting a buzz saw to his sexy abs? lol luke ilu ur such a show off
obeys traffic laws
a lothario with the ladies but has a code of honour (no cheating!)
when he breaks something important (ie; a bed) he actually goes out and buy a new one right away and i admire that tenacity
knows how to admit when he is wrong
does not yell at drunks even when they throw up on his shoes
I know I run a book blog so maybe this isn’t the right platform for this, but girls: Please look out for other girls. Tonight I was stuck at a bus stop in Shoreditch circa 2 AM and saw another young woman getting harassed by a drunk, aggressive dude, and at first I thought, “She’s got it under control.” But then he started touching her and I went “No, that’s definitely not right.” So I barged over and shoved him out of the way and said, “Beth?? Oh my God, how are you, I haven’t seen you since grade school!” And this girl I’d never seen before in my life threw her arms around my neck and whispered, “You are an angel, thank God.” We talked for fifteen minutes, the creep lost interest, I watched her get on the bus and I will sleep so much better knowing she got home in one piece. If you see something weird happening, intervene. The worst that can happen is embarrassment, and I think that’s worth the risk when you consider the alternative.
In your opinion, does the Harry Potter series have literary merits?
Absolutely. Setting aside the obvious fact that it got a whole generation of kids reading and made intellectualism cool to them and gave young girls positive female role models while also gently introducing them to the idea that the world isn’t black and white, studies have also shown that kids who grew up reading Harry Potter are more tolerant and compassionate individuals. JKR used things like house elves and werewolves and giants and Death Eaters to show kids why discrimination and bigotry are fucked up. Hell yeah. HP has so much merit. Honestly like how you could argue that it doesn’t, I have no idea.
I want a story about a king whose son is prophesied to kill him so the king is like “whatever what am I supposed to do, kill my own kid wtf is wrong with you” so he just raises him as normal, doesn’t even tell him about the prophecy, and instead of some convoluted twist of events that leads to the king’s murder the son grows up and when the king is very old and dying and in excruciating pain the kid is just like alright I'mma put him out of his misery.
The king’s son becomes the new king, and is prophesied to defeat evil and bring an age of prosperity. His generals and knights all crack their knuckles but he pretty much ignores them and focuses on strengthening the infrastructure of his kingdom. Forty years later he is old and sick but still hearing his subjects’ grievances, and a general’s like “how will you defeat the prophesied evil now? You’re old and weak.” Another visitor, a teenager fresh out of the kingdom’s public education system, looks at the general like he is an ignoramus. The king eradicated poverty, housed the homeless, taught the ignorant, ended class exploitation by abolishing the nobility and imprisoning the corrupt, and established a highly respected guild of doctors that recently figured out how to cure the plague. There are no brigands because there is enough wealth for everyone to live comfortably; hiding in the woods and taking trinkets from people simply doesn’t make any sense for anyone but the desperate, and the people are not desperate. Evil is a weed, explains the teenager. It grows in cracked roads and crumbling houses and forgotten corners, rooted in indifference and watered by suffering. But the king demands that broken things be mended and suffering people be made well.
No evil lives in this kingdom, says the teenager. It starved to death before I was born.
the funniest thing to me about the whole “no one talks to each other because of smartphones/technology/etc” argument is that ppl totally still talk to each other?
i can hang out with friends for hours without checking my phone, or i’m using my phone to show the homies pictures and videos and articles that i think they’d like.
like hate to break it to you, but if someone’s on their phone instead of talking to you it’s cause they don’t wanna talk to you. probably cause you’re fucking terrible & likely use the word “millennialls” derisively and there’s someone 2 timezones away they’d rather chat with
“maybe we can talk about how with the internet there are more diagnoses of adhd now, and how the internet is rewiring our brains…”
“medicating childhood: the hoax of adhd”
literally all things ive seen in the past fucking WEEK let me out of this hell
i can debunk this all in a flash
adhd is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and develops around 12 years old. given that, and how many diagnosed adhd adults there are, including elders, this is something that predates the internet
adhd is genetic, so despite an attention given from parent to child, it’s incredibly likely that at least one of the parents or other relatives also has adhd
oh yes, and let’s not forget the myth that adhd symptoms are synonymous with child behavior. but adhd isn’t just hyperactivity - in fact, hyperactivity doesn’t always present itself. in addition to hyperactivity, other symptoms include:
echolalia
poor memory
racing/scattered thoughts
slowed social development (around 30%)
difficulty understanding tasks/organizing them into steps
struggles understanding time management
impulsive acts (impulsive spending is a major issue with many of us)
difficulty managing emotions, especially anger
easily bored (and boredom leads to greater frustration than others)
TROUBLE SLEEPING. many adhd people spend their entire lives not getting good sleep because of the constant “noise” in their heads. see the scattered thoughts. basically, the thoughts are always going. there is no shut off switch. insomnia is largely prevalent with adhd
losing details (like getting poor grades because you missed the fine print on a test even with knowing the material)
struggles with listening comprehension (words sound like nonsense)
struggles with reading comprehension (words look like nonsense)
memorization issues - a child skilled in math will have trouble with multiplication tables, for example
has trouble “waiting their turn” in conversation - frequently interrupts without realizing
hyperfocus - an often overlooked aspect, when one focuses to the exception of all other external stimuli, including needing to eat, sleep, etc. time almost ceases to exist
not a symptom, but adhd - especially adult adhd - is highly comorbid with anxiety disorders and depression later in life. this is because a person with adhd is working their heart out to achieve the same standards, contrary to the believe that they’re “lazy.” as you can see above, almost every aspect of daily life is impacted - social, work, school, family, money… and this can lead to a feeling of being unable to cope.
despite all that, people with adhd are also:
more solution-oriented
more resilient
more expressive
more curious
and better at multitasking - not just because of having to learn how to manage the other symptoms, but these are, in fact, also symptoms. you can imagine how useful hyperfocus can be as well.
i wrote all this because i really want people to understand me and understand how this all works. and i want misunderstandings to stop so people can respect who i am.
College has me so fucked up. Some kid just told me that our final assignments are due in fifteen minutes and my first reaction was acceptance. I don’t even have anything to hand in, it’s worth 30% of my mark and I was just ready to embrace the void. Wasn’t even relieved when he said he was kidding. Nobody can touch this. I’ve surpassed this mortal plane
It just kills me when writers create franchises where like 95% of the speaking roles are male, then get morally offended that all of the popular ships are gay. It’s like, what did they expect?
I feel this is something that does often get overlooked in slash shipping, especially in articles that try to ‘explain’ the phenomena. No matter the show, movie or book, people are going to ship. When everyone is a dude and the well written relationships are all dudes, of course we’re gonna go for romance among the dudes because we have no other options.
Totally.
A lot of analyses propose that the overwhelming predominance of male/male ships over female/female and female/male ships in fandom reflects an unhealthy fetishisation of male homosexuality and a deep-seated self-hatred on the part of women in fandom. While it’s true that many fandoms certainly have issues gender-wise, that sort of analysis willfully overlooks a rather more obvious culprit.
Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we have a hypothetical media franchise with twelve recurring speaking roles, nine of which are male and three of which are female.
(Note that this is actually a bit better than average representaton-wise - female representation in popular media franchises is typicaly well below the 25% contemplated here.)
Assuming that any character can be shipped with any other without regard for age, gender, social position or prior relationship - and for simplicity excluding cloning, time travel and other “selfcest”-enabling scenarios - this yields the following (non-polyamorous) possibilities:
Possible F/F ships: 3 Possible F/M ships: 27 Possible M/M ships: 36
TOTAL POSSIBLE SHIPS: 66
Thus, assuming - again, for the sake of simplicity - that every possible ship is about equally likely to appeal to any given fan, we’d reasonably expect about (36/66) = 55% of all shipping-related media to feature M/M pairings. No particular prejudice in favour of male characters and/or against female characters is necessary for us to get there.
The point is this: before we can conclude that representation in shipping is being skewed by fan prejudice, we have to ask how skewed it would be even in the absence of any particular prejudice on the part of the fans. Or, to put it another way, we have to ask ourselves: are we criticising women in fandom - and let’s be honest here, this type of criticism is almost exclusively directed at women - for creating a representation problem, or are we merely criticising them for failing to correct an existing one?
YES YES YES HOLY SHIT YES FUCKING THANK YOU!
Also food for thought: the obvious correction to a lack of non-male representation in a story is to add more non-males. Female Original Characters are often decried as self-insertion or Mary Sues, particular if romance or sex is a primary focus.
I really appreciate when tumblr commentary is of the quality I might see at an academic conference. No joke.
This doesn’t even account for the disparity in the amount of screen time/dialogue male characters to get in comparison to female characters, and how much time other characters spend talking about male characters even when they aren’t onscreen. This all leads to male characters ending up more fully developed, and more nuanced than female characters. The more an audience feels like they know a character, the more likely an audience is to care about a character. More network television writers are men. Male writers tend to understand men better than women, statistically speaking. Female characters are more likely to be written by men who don’t understand women vary well.
But it’s easier to blame the collateral damage than solve the root problem.
Yay, mathy arguments. :)
This is certainly one large factor in the amount of M/M slash out there, and the first reason that occurred to me when I first got into fandom (I don’t think it’s the sole reason, but I think it’s a bigger one than some people in the Why So Much Slash debate give our credit for). And nice point about adding female OCs.
In some of my shipping-related stats, I found that shows with more major female characters lead to more femslash (also more het). (e.g. femslash in female-heavy media; femslash deep dive) I’ve never actually tried to do an analysis to pin down how much of fandom’s M/M preference is explained by the predominance of male characters in the source media, but I’m periodically tempted to try to do so.
I’ve seen the screen-time/representation argument before, and I’m still not sure I buy it. Yes, @destinationtoast is absolutely correct that more female characters equals more het and more femslash. My other big fandom is Battlestar Gallactica, which features a pretty gender-balanced cast and one canonical lesbian ship, and the result is both more het and more femslash. I’m getting into Mad Max fandom as well, and again, more het, and more femslash. So yes, absolutely, some of the blame falls on the (usually male) canon creators for not creating enough well-round female characters with screen time in the first place.
But when I look at say, Sherlock fandom, the glaring example that always jumps out at me is Mormor. I have nothing against Mormor or people who ship it, but it’s pretty astounding to me the amount of effort that fans have invested in a male fanon character who isn’t even on the show. And, to @observethewalrus’ point, there is no corresponding fandom interest in say, Violet Hunter, or any of the ACD female characters who are mentioned in passing but aren’t on the BBC Sherlock show who could be fleshed out, and I doubt there ever will be, because fans tend to call OFCs “Mary Sue.”
So I do think there is some validity to the internalized misogyny critique, especially when we consider that it’s not just that there isn’t much representation of female characters, but that when we do see female characters in fic, they are often vilified or otherwise reduced to one-dimensional cartoons that don’t encourage reader empathy.
I understand what people are saying about it being easier to blame the fans than the creators. We have closer ties with fellow fans and it’s easier to call out someone we think might actually listen. But for me, this isn’t about assigning blame as much as it is about being the change I want to see in my fandom, to use the old cliche. I write as much het as I do slash, and I’ve started writing femslash as well, though that was harder for me because of the math, as people have pointed out, there are fewer possible femslash pairing and I didn’t really find one that spoke to me until Morkins and obviously both those female characters were introduced in S3.
And I defend people who ship Warstan, Sherlolly, Molliarty, Adlock at every opportunity from people who insist these ships are homophobic. Because I know my friends who ship het pairings are interested in further development of the female characters, and have nothing against IRL gay people (many of us are queer ourselves). Fandom seems to me overwhelmingly about making space in the canon for people and relationships who are not otherwise represented, and women are still underrepresented in mainstream media in major ways.
So, that’s my $.02.
Thanks, @anarfea, for the very thoughtful response. The more time I spend in fandom, the more I think there’s a lot to what you say, and also that it’s really, really complicated.
There was a really good article I reblogged on this within the past couple days called The Femslash Gap that tries to brainstorm & analyze a number of these factors and more – and my response, FWIW. I really like the non-reductionistic approach there.
When I first entered fandom and started seeing arguments about why there’s so much slash and so little femslash, the arguments bothered me because most of the ones I saw were really reductionist and non-mathy. People often assumed there was one reason (usually a bad assumption), and they threw around terms like misogyny on the one side and homophobia on the other (and at the time I hadn’t yet realized how subtle or broad the application of these terms has grown, either), often without paying much attention to the possible combinations afforded by the underlying media. And that seemed absurd to me, as a fan, a Johnlock shipper, and a fandom statistician.
To break that down a bit, because I think many fans – maybe especially noob fans – are in a similar boat on the first couple points:
Oh, and let me make clear– because I think I left it implicit above – I find the “homophobia” accusations hurled by some M/M fans against some het shippers (or non-fans of a given M/M pairing) to be ludicrous and terrible. Who you ship is not who you support rights for IRL. And very many of us in fandom are various stripes of queer, as @anarfea points out and @centrumlumina’s AO3 census data supports:
http://centrumlumina.tumblr.com/post/62840006596/sexuality
I find that argument so ridiculous I don’t bother to engage with it, but that may be a mistake on my part (not to mention johnlock/ot3 shipper privilege). And I certainly didn’t want to skip over that excellent discussion by @anarfea and appear to dismiss it.
THIS: “ So I do think there is some validity to the internalized misogyny critique, especially when we consider that it’s not just that there isn’t much representation of female characters, but that when we do see female characters in fic, they are often vilified or otherwise reduced to one-dimensional cartoons that don’t encourage reader empathy.”
I keep wanting to discuss this more– how we write women in slash fic. I’m thinking about how many times a female character– no matter who she is– is portrayed as vapid, shallow, timid, a straight up bitch– a doddering old lady who say’s “dear” every five seconds– or a murderous vixen, etc, etc, …
Okay. In Sherlock, part of the problem is that the women we are given to work with are caricatures to begin with. Ella, the “motherly” Black woman. Mostly invisible. Sally Donovan, the Angry Black woman and a slut, besides. Mrs. Hudson– see doddering, motherly granny stereotype. Janine? Ho’. Mary? Assassin who just wants life in the suburbs. “I’m not really bad, I’m just drawn that way.” Molly, the girl-woman desperately in love. Or, as they used to say– “Fish”. (ugh)
And what do we do? Our women “chirp” and “giggle”, or they are cartoon villains. Or they are window dressing. They have no real purpose. We seem to want them gone. Or– they must stay in their tropeish roles.
I think that’s how much we have been influenced by media.
But because we are independent of popular media– in other words, we are in it, but not of it– and we can pick and choose what we want to do, how we want to show these characters– we have the power to change how women– who are reflections of ourselves– appear in our own wing of underground media.
It’s a shame that oftentimes, we can be more chauvinistic in our writing where women are concerned than the men writing the original series…
Sorry for blathering, but y’all made me think! :-D
gosh but like we spent hundreds of years looking up at the stars and wondering “is there anybody out there” and hoping and guessing and imagining
because we as a species were so lonely and we wanted friends so bad, we wanted to meet other species and we wanted to talk to them and we wanted to learn from them and to stop being the only people in the universe
and we started realizing that things were maybe not going so good for us— we got scared that we were going to blow each other up, we got scared that we were going to break our planet permanently, we got scared that in a hundred years we were all going to be dead and gone and even if there were other people out there, we’d never get to meet them
and then
we built robots?
and we gave them names and we gave them brains made out of silicon and we pretended they were people and we told them hey you wanna go exploring, and of course they did, because we had made them in our own image
and maybe in a hundred years we won’t be around any more, maybe yeah the planet will be a mess and we’ll all be dead, and if other people come from the stars we won’t be around to meet them and say hi! how are you! we’re people, too! you’re not alone any more!, maybe we’ll be gone
but we built robots, who have beat-up hulls and metal brains, and who have names; and if the other people come and say, who were these people? what were they like?
the robots can say, when they made us, they called us discovery; they called us curiosity; they called us explorer; they called us spirit. they must have thought that was important.
Seven year olds can properly name the genitilia that they have, as well as the genitles others have.
Eleven year olds know that girls can like girls and boys can like boys and that its even okay to like neither, or both, or multiple.
Thirteen year olds know what a condom is and how to say no when someone wants to kiss but you don’t.
This is AMAZING. I want THIS! I would LOVE to have this education and openess in my life.
Telling a group of teenagers to wait until they’re married is:
a) not going to do /shit/, did you really think they were going to listen to you
and
b) none of your FUCKING business, I’m gonna have a post coming up about this so stay tuned.
This is what sexual education is about. This is what it needs to consist of. This is what I wish I had learned.
Take note, America, because you’re doing a really shitty job.
(W)
Not to mention that this method has been proven to reduce the amount of childhood sexual abuse that occurs. By teaching children what consent means, that no one has the right to touch you without permission, children are more likely to report sexual abuse and to recognize it.
