This is REALLY important. This is for any doctor appointment. Whether it be cuz you are sick, or disabled, or ANYTHING. Unless it’s a MRI, Xray, Catscan, etc where NO ONE can be in the room with you (cuz of machines and radiation etc), you do not have to listen when someone says you can’t bring someone back with you.
You are the patient. This is YOUR body. Don’t let them tell you it’s ‘a small room’ don’t let them tell you that it’s not common. This is YOUR body. If you are more comfortable with someone in that room with you- INSIST. Insist multiple times if you have to, be REALLY upset, show that you are upset.
As someone who has been in PLENTY of different doctors offices and procedure rooms, the only real reason to not allow someone else in that room is if it’s because of sanitation/safety reasons (ie - surgeries, MRIs, X-rays, Catscans). Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
^^ Very much this. I usually take a great deal of pride in being able to deal with anything alone, and I’m old enough now that it’s strange for me to bring people back with me. BUT I was severely traumatized during a dentist appointment when I was seven and I still REALLY NEED to have someone with me who knows me well enough to tell a dentist (or literally anyone who puts me in a chair and comes at my face, really) to back the fuck off in the event that I start to panic harder than usual. So hell fucking yeah, you better believe I tell them my mother’s damn well coming back with me, and when they give me shit I trust her to press the point. If you’re too anxious or unwell to argue with a medical professional (the stress of visiting a medical professional makes me lapse into old behavior patterns in which I view any authority as a direct threat, which is AWESOME and super helpful), discuss it ahead of time with the person you want to bring with you. It’s so much easier to defend someone else rather than yourself, and a good friend or a trusted family member can make the whole experience less painful.
Through plot device of your choice, Kylo Ren has a child. Given the history of relations between the generations in his family, he decides infanticide is a great option. Unfortunately for Kylo, this goes about as well as infanticide usually goes in stories. So, if you'd like, tell us this kid's story!
….anon, I love me some dark shit. you know that, I know that. however, the first thing that my brain offered up upon hearing this beautifully fucked up scenario you presented me with was this:
The mission went south with Finn still inside the temple and a bomb about to detonate. “We’ve got six minutes before this whole island is space dust,” Poe yells down the comms, powering the ship back on, sensors be damned. “Get back here.”
“Shit!” Finn yelps into his ear, followed by the sound of blaster fire. “I’ve got the plans, but–shit!”
“Finn?” Poe demands. “Finn!”
“Poe,” Finn’s voice says, a little dazed. “You’ve got to come to me.”
There are five big guns and two walls between Poe and Finn, and five minutes to get away from the impact zone. “I’m on my way,” Poe says grimly.
Four absolutely insane minutes later Finn runs up the gangplank, curled defensively around something in his arms, and Poe guns them straight up, miles into the sky, the island exploding into light and heat beneath them. Poe lets out a whoop of exhilaration and sails them directly into hyperspace, laughing with relief.
He stops laughing when he hears the baby crying.
He turns around, and there is Finn, looking vaguely stunned, holding a baby.
“That’s a baby,” Poe manages, his mind utterly blank.
“They were gonna kill her,” Finn says in a soft voice, adjusting her carefully in his arms. “They left her on the altar, like some kind of–they were just going to leave her, Poe. I couldn’t leave her.”
“No,” Poe says faintly. “Of course not.”
There are three days between them and base. The baby is Human, blue-eyed, black-haired, toothless, and horrifically prone to wailing, which makes Poe want to weep with sympathy.
“I don’t get how you’re so bad at this,” Finn comments, rescuing Poe from a shaky attempt at bottle-feeding, one day into it. “It’s like you’ve never seen a baby before.”
“Only child,” Poe explains, wiping spit-up off his shoulder with a wince. “All my cousins are older. How are you so good at this?”
Finn smiles. “We all had creche duty, before final conditioning. I was the best at it,” he says, a little pride creeping into his voice.
“Clearly you have a gift,” Poe comments, because the baby is dozing against Finn’s shoulder now.
“We can’t just keep calling her baby,” Finn says, ignoring that. “You should name her.”
Poe laughs, a little unsteady. “I don’t know if I’m up for the honor.”
“You named me,” Finn says reasonably.
“I had something to go on, that time,” Poe says. “Besides. She might already have a name. Maybe they’ll be able to find her parents, or her home planet, back at base.”
Finn seems to take that seriously, giving the baby a searching look. About three months old, head full of curly hair, abandoned in the ruins of a Sith temple by the First Order. Not much to go on. “Who are you, little girl,” Finn says softly, and Poe rubs a hand over his mouth to distract himself from the abrupt ache in his chest.
“Let’s call her niña for now,” Poe suggests. “That’s ‘little girl’, on Yavin 4.”
Finn smiles at him, and the ache intensifies. “Niña,” he tries. “I like that.”
It takes six hours for “niña” to become “Nina”, and apparently that’s what’s sticking.
–
The General comes running as soon as they land, blaster on her hip, her eyes wild. “Where is he,” she rasps, looking past Poe to Finn.
“Sir?” Poe says, and she shakes her head abruptly.
“I thought I felt–” she breaks off with an indrawn breath, her eyes falling on Nina.
“Lieutenant Dameron rescued her, sir,” Poe says, his hand falling automatically on Finn’s shoulder to offer support. “I’ve got the full details in my report.”
The General swallows. Twice. Her eyes are full of tears, and Finn’s shoulder tenses under Poe’s hand. “You’d better take her to the medic tent,” she says in a hoarse voice, and then nods once. “Thank you, Lieutenant. Commander. You’ll report to me directly, once she’s safe.”
Ben Organa, not Ben Solo. Because Leia’s the last Organa, you see, and Han’s got something like twenty first cousins alone, and she and Luke are more or less quietly agreed that he should be the last Skywalker. (It’s “Ben” because it’s the only serious suggestion Luke made during the infamous What To Name The Baby argument that took place the week after Ben was born, and Luke’s opinion was the only compromise Han and Leia could make between “Jacen” and “Val”, and Luke was mostly incredulous that they were just calling him “baby” for so long.)
Finn Dameron, as the entire rest of tumblr has produced some very compelling arguments in favor of.
Rey goes through a cycle of surnames, but the one she settles on is Kenobi. Because once she finds out who her parents were, she wants desperately to take their name–to feel a connection to her past, even though every trace of it is gone. (At first she accepted Finn’s invitation to join her as an unofficial Dameron, and later she called herself Rey Skywalker just as an easy shorthand, since nobody knew what “Padawan” meant anyway, and Chewie told her very somberly that she had a right to “Rey Solo” if she wanted it, as well as Chewie’s own last name, which she couldn’t actually pronounce. Life debt stuff. But she keeps Kenobi.)
Okay, but the first HP book came out in 1997. That was almost twenty years ago. No, JKR was not fully aware of her white/straight/cis privilege at that time. She has had 20 years to get better. She also wrote the first draft on table napkins while working as a single mother of multiple children and receiving public support.
We are allowed to retrospectively critique her lack of inclusivity. We are also allowed to think that perhaps her awareness of the lack of said inclusivity has improved.
Just as a goddamn FOR EXAMPLE, in 1997, if Rowling had tried to pitch Dumbledore, a school headmaster, as openly homosexual, her book would never have been published. Want some evidence? I can do that.
Regulations were introduced for discrimination protections on sexual orientation in employment on 1 December 2003, following the adoption of an EC Directive in 2000, providing for the prohibition of discrimination in employment on the grounds of sexual orientation.
Right, so he (Dumbledore) could have been fired for being gay at any point prior to 2000, even assuming Wizarding law was keeping up with Muggle law, which is a goddamn stretch considering how shoddy trials and evidence are maintained throughout Auror procedurals.
And, regarding “she could have made more students of color in the first place,” um:
After 2000, some argued that racism remains common, and some politicians and public figures have been accused of promoting racist attitudes in the media, particularly with regard to immigration, however race and immigration although related are not the same concepts.[5] There have been growing concerns in recent years about institutional racism in public and private bodies. Although various anti-discrimination laws do exist, according to some sources, most employers in the UK remain institutionally racist including public bodies such as the police[6] and the legal professions.[7][8]
I’m not saying “JKR has always been conscious of her White Privilege.” I’m not saying “she intended this from the start.” I’m saying, she started this fucking series when she was 25, she got it published when she was 32, and she is now fifty and has millions of dollars, resources, and feedback.
Hey, check it out: she’s had twenty-five years to learn.
Jo Rowling is a white British woman with a Bachelor of Arts in
French and Classics from the University of Exeter. It may very well have taken her this much time and this much exposure to the greater, wider world- outside her very white, very British influences in Tolkien and Dickens- to realize, “Oh, shit, I could/should have made my books more diverse, that’s such a lovely idea, my fans are so wonderful, I love their headcanons, they have taught me so much, I’m really lucky to have learned all of this.”
We want people to grow, don’t we? We want them to expand their minds and change. So can we please stop hating on people who weren’t born into the movement for finding it later?
I know it’s illegal but whenever I get antibiotics from the doctor I save a few and give them to friends or coworkers who don’t have insurance so that when cold season comes they might be able to shorten their illness
That is not good- that’s not quite how antibiotics work.
Antibiotics kill some bacteria, but don’t manage to kill other bacteria. Just like when you get a particular sickness (or a vaccination), your body can protect you from future infections, any bacteria that came into contact with the antibiotic is protected from future doses of that antibiotic. Bacteria are very virulent breeders, so they spawn more resistant bacteria.
If you take the full dose of antibiotics, your natural antibodies can deal with the cells that are resistant while the medicine kills off the bacteria that isn’t resistant. If you don’t take the full course of antibiotics, then your body has to deal with both the resistant and the non-resistant strains of bacteria, and it can become overwhelming. Also, most bacteria are able to pass on genes between still-living cells, so that previously non-resistant strains become resistant, and you have inadvertently cultivated a stronger strain of bacteria.
Furthermore, colds and the flu are viral infections, so antibiotics don’t work against them anyway. The best protection against viral infections are vaccinations, as there are not many viruses that we have developed anti-viral medication against, once you already have the disease. If there are anti-viral medications, it is even more important that you take the full dose of the medication, because anti-viral medication is even harsher against the body than antibacterial medication is.
Yeah, not how it works at all. I get your intent there with health care access, but that’s literally worse than not taking any antibiotics for your friends, on pretty much every level.
Sharing is not caring when it comes to medication It is risking the health of everyone involved
This. Because we have clients who save their animals’ antibiotics and give them to their other pets when they get sick or injured to save money.
It is literally the MOST HILARIOUS to me that all the marketing execs for The Force Awakens were like “KYLO, GUYS, KYLO WILL BE THE BIG HIT, EVERYONE PUMP OUT KYLO REN TOYS BECAUSE THEY WILL BE FLYING OFF THE SHELVES. NO ONE WILL WANT REY TOYS, DON’T MAKE ANYTHING.” And now it’s a few weeks into the release and it’s like….no, we don’t want the Emo Tantrum Child, let’s have us some Rey action figures, after all she’s the HERO OF THE MOVIE, and everyone is basically losing their shit about it.
I have this mental image of just piles and piles of boxed Kylo Ren toys being dumped on the execs’ desks while these poor oblivious bastards are slowly buried, weeping, in the unsold Emo Tantrum Child.
I’m probably going to hell for laughing so hard at this.
Consider this: Finn stealing a fry off of Rey’s plate because he heard that’s a cute thing couples do and he wants to balance out their “I’LL SAVE YOU!” emotional intensity with some cute things, only Rey freezes and Finn’s like, shit, I just stole food from someone who grew up without it, what Attack Mode did I just activate. But then she just fucking dumps all of her food on his plate all “I’LL FEED YOU, YOU’LL NEVER GO HUNGRY WITH ME” and they’re right back in the emotional intensity, and Finn doesn’t even like fries that much.
Daemon - The only one you’re appropriating is Pullman and by appropriating Pullman you’re upsetting no-one, save possibly the Pope.
Patronus - Wizards everywhere are more than willing to lend you this term and the geekiness is an added bonus. I just read that geeks are sexy, or so the Metro, so, there you go, a patronus is clearly your next ascribed accessory.
I will reblog this over and over till everyone on my dash switches to one of these.
yupp. I use patronus.
If you are non-NDN, you shouldn’t be using the term “spirit animal.”
Stop fucking saying “spirit animal” 2k16
also stop saying you’re ‘’two spirit’’ if you’re not native
Another version of this post had patron saint as another alternative.
i’ve used the term “soul twin” to refer to people like characters and celebrities as well, so that’s another option
i want a how i met your mother to be about a pansexual ted mosby and the running joke is that barney’s offended ted doesn’t find him attractive
i want a legally blonde to be about a lipstick lesbian who goes to law school to get her girlfriend back
i want a that ‘70s show where jackie is bisexual and between dating kelso and hyde she brings her ugly ass girlfriends with her to hang out with the gang (because there’s no way she can have a woman in her life prettier than herself)
i want a 13 going on 30 where jenna rink wakes up to be 30 years old and his name is michael rink and he still falls in love with matty from the house next door
i want a parks & recreation where ann perkins is asexual but still becomes pregnant via artificial insemination because ann is perfect and would be the best mother in the history of ever
being lgbt+ doesn’t have to be the focal point of a movie or show
like i understand it’s still a pretty bold move in media but like i’m just getting sick of all of the representation being the ultra dramatic main premise of it all
there are so many lgbt+ dramas. just give me my sitcom.
100% this, someone with screenwriting abilities and money get on it.
okay, time to get real here. i know a lot of people have been on an archive of our own before, i know a lot of people write and post to an archive of our own, so i know it’s not a matter of nobody knowing what i’m talking about. i’m going to introduce to you a novel concept tho
ship tag etiquette:
1. don’t tag in your secondary and minor ships. if your main ship in the fic is loki x hawkeye, awesome; tag that, and anyone looking for loki x hawkeye will basically know your fic is the place to go. if your main ship in the fic is loki x hawkeye, but you also tag the 4 other ships you mention in like one sentence out of the 50k fic you just wrote, then there are going to be a lot of people out there coming to your fic thinking oh hey, at last a thor x sif fanfic sign me up only to find out fast they’re wrong.
2. don’t tag in your
secondary and
minor ships. it doesn’t matter if you dedicate those motherfucking sideships one paragraph out of 53, that’s like promising starving fic readers a treat and giving them a fucking pea. one pea. just one. maybe they are looking for fics with the actual ship whose tag they’re searching in, rather than:
fics where their ship is used as a stepping stone to get to the main one
fics where their ship is tagged in because the writer thinks one mention makes it a ‘minor ship’ (IT DOESN’T, it’s just A MENTION OF IT)
fics where their ship is only tacked on to keep those characters busy and the main character of your fic only thinks about that ship in passing twice
fics where their ship is brought apart, by death or break up or infidelity, in any part of the fic just for the sake of the main ship to happen.
3. don’t tag in your
secondary and
minor ships. it’s just fucking rude. if i wanna get my rocks off reading superhot natasha romanoff x lady sif porn, do you know what i can find by going to their ship tag? DISAPPOINTMENT. because rather than learning that there are three/four fics focusing on their spacewives sex life, i have to sift through the mILLIONTY ONE HUNDRED fics already there, who center around loki. if i wanted to read about loki I’D JUST OPEN THE GODDAMN MCU TAG, IT’S ALL PEOPLE EVER WRITE ABOUT ANYWAY.
4. don’t tag in your
secondary and
minor ships. i don’t care if you’ve done it once or twice, i don’t care if you think it’s necessary. it’s not. if you think it’s necessary, you know what you could do? add a note at the beginning. a OH BY THE WAY GUYS THISFIC WILL ALSO INCLUDE SOME SIDE SHIPS SUCH AS […] or you can let the readers figure it out.
5. don’t tag in your
secondary and
minor ships. because those of us who go into those tags looking for fics about them where they’re appreciated and portrayed well and are the main focus will be left facing the origin of our supervillain story. every. single. day.
6. if you’ve tagged in
secondary and
your minor ships: do us all and yourself a favour and go delete them. do it now. edit them now. you’ll be thanked, and most importantly, you’ll be appreciated twice: once by you readers, once by the people who don’t have to get annoyed anymore at seeing fics promising them an apple and giving them a fucking pea.
First paragraph of the actual fic:
I judge the whole fic by the first words and I assume you do too so here it is
"Just a series or drabbles/headcanons/prompts":
Someday I want to write an incredible 200k fic but for now have fun going through all the chapters trying to figure out which one is the one you actually want to read
"Will X be able to find love before Y happens?" And other questions:
I read entirely too many YA novels
Quote from the actual fic:
I watch entirely too many movie trailers
"Basically just an X fic with Y characters":
I can probably write a good summary if I cared a little more
Song lyrics:
I have no idea how summaries work and I'm trying to be like the people with poem quotes
Poem quotes:
either the best thing you've ever read or 13-year old English literature purple prose there is no in-between
Lol I can't do summaries:
I'm not entirely sure if I want you to read my fic
"Wtf is this" or other author questioning themselves:
it's either porn or crack
Explicit rated fics:
listen my man I know you're not gonna really read the summary just read the tags and decide if my sin is the sin for you
Paragraph of tags and one line summary:
ok listen I can't do summaries but I've got this ok IVE GOT THIS
dictionary definition:
fluff or angst here you go
Either a meme or a tumblr imagine your otp:
I was bored and I had emotions about my ship you can have emotions about them too
Paragraph from the source the fic is from:
I've basically written my headcanon and made it prettier
"I'm so sorry" or "I cried while writing this" :
I was in a sad mood and I needed a healthy way to release these emotions so now y'all get to suffer
No summary:
it's either porn or a small drabble and it all depends on the word count
Actual fic summary:
*rocks back on old wheelchair* listen kid *smokes cigarette* I've seen and read a lot of things *blows smoke* and I know it's hard but there's still hope in this world ok? *looks into the distance* also you might wanna read the tags because the chances of gore and/or character death being in my fic have gone from 0 to 75
This weekend I was told a story which, although I’m kind of ashamed to admit it, because holy shit is it ever obvious, is kind of blowing my mind.
A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.
Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic? She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing. But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great. She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success. So - what gives?
His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear. Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles. He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses. You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on. Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered. He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit. That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there.
I knew that having dresses and blazers altered was probably something they were doing, but to me, having alterations done generally means having my jeans hemmed and then simply living with the fact that I will always be adjusting my clothing while I’m wearing it because I have curves from here to ya-ya, some things don’t fit right, and the world is just unfair that way. I didn’t think that having everything tailored was something that people did.
It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t know this. But no one ever told me. I was told about bikini season and dieting and targeting your “problem areas” and avoiding horizontal stripes. No one told me that Jennifer Aniston is out there wearing a bigger size of Ralph Lauren t-shirt and having it altered to fit her.
I sat there after I was told this story, and I really thought about how hard I have worked not to care about the number or the letter on the tag of my clothes, how hard I have tried to just love my body the way it is, and where I’ve succeeded and failed. I thought about all the times I’ve stood in a fitting room and stared up at the lights and bit my lip so hard it bled, just to keep myself from crying about how nothing fits the way it’s supposed to. No one told me that it wasn’t supposed to. I guess I just didn’t know. I was too busy thinking that I was the one that didn’t fit.
I thought about that, and about all the other girls and women out there whose proportions are “wrong,” who can’t find a good pair of work trousers, who can’t fill a sweater, who feel excluded and freakish and sad and frustrated because they have to go up a size, when really the size doesn’t mean anything and it never, ever did, and this is just another bullshit thing thrown in your path to make you feel shitty about yourself.
I thought about all of that, and then I thought that in elementary school, there should be a class for girls where they sit you down and tell you this stuff before you waste years of your life feeling like someone put you together wrong.
So, I have to take that and sit with it for a while. But in the meantime, I thought perhaps I should post this, because maybe my friend, her friend, and I are the only clueless people who did not realise this, but maybe we’re not. Maybe some of you have tried to embrace the arbitrary size you are, but still couldn’t find a cute pair of jeans, and didn’t know why.
This post is one of those things that I will reblog every time it appears on my dash. This is so important, and no one ever tells you about it.
I almost didn’t read this but then I did and I’m really glad that I did.
And like, I had fiber craft lessons all through my mandatory schooling (sewing, knitting, crochet etc). “Learn to modify a store-bought item to match your body” would fit in those classes just fine.
“Alas, I behold thee with pity, not with anger, thou common shot-clog!”
What the fuck is a shot-clog? I have no idea but I’m definitely using this next time I get cat-called.
Okay apparently a shot-clog is a person you secretly can’t stand but publicly put up with because you know they’re going to foot the bill for everyone at the end of the night. That’s such a useful term, why did we ever stop saying that?
okay so all pilots have to have some kinda astromech in their x-wings but poe gets frustrated because they actually slow him down with all their calculations but it’s a REQUIREMENT so he keeps trying astromech after astromech and none of them work so then he goes to whatever you call a droid store and sits down all dejected, and after a while little BB-8 rolls over to him all beeping in concern and is like “i’m not an official astromech but i AM a droid so maybe i can help!!!” and so Poe pops sweet little BB-8 into the x-wing and it all goes wonderfully from then on because it’s Poe flying around with BB-8 basically putting good job!!! or wheeeeeeeee!!! on the screen every now and then
Anxiety attacks can take different forms, such as:
Unpredictable bouts of rage or irritability
Nit-pickiness (obsessive behavior, which may be a part of OCD), and even a hypersensitivity to disarray, chaos, or any sort of change
Fast-talking, stuttering, stumbling over words
Not talking at all
Sitting rigid, staring into space, almost seeming “zoned out”
Understanding the way our or other’s anxiety works can help to decrease the stigma and help to calm a person faster and get them out of that state. These are just a few, but it gives an idea of the range in which attacks can come.
This. A lot. And I mean A LOT of people forget.
Woah
HOLY SHIT, THESE QUALIFY AS PANIC ATTACK BEHAVIOR?
The best explanation I’ve heard so far for why R2 only woke up at the end, is that he actually does start booting up when BB8 first finds him; he just has to get through 10 years worth of updates before that.
I can literally accept that
Please do not power off or unplug your droid. Installing update 1 of 27040 …
i saw tfa yesterday and can i just talk about one bit that stuck out to me but that i haven’t seen anyone else discussing yet?
the just. straightforward resolution of finn’s lie
like, normally when a main character lies to another main character in media? it always goes the same way? circumstances contrive to out the lie beyond the liar’s control, and the person who was lied to is angry about it and it drives conflict between the two characters and so on. it’s so damn pervasive that i was consciously sitting there in the theatre waiting for something to reveal that finn lied about being with the resistance and for rey to be angry with him for lying and for them to have a conflict that would eventually be resolved with the same damn exchange of “im sorry i lied to you but i did it with good intentions” that happens in every. freaking. movie.
And? just anticipating it exhausted me tbh. because it always happens that way. and its annoying. for me, personally, watching two protagonists hurt each other and be angry at each other like that is stressful. i get a literal physical feeling of anxiety about it. and you already KNOW how they’re going to resolve it so you’re just sitting there waiting for them to just talk it out already the script has literally been written for you in a hundred other movies.
so there i was stressing myself out trying to guess how long until they went down that road when
finn just? straight up outed his own lie? and she wasnt angry with him for withholding the truth? and it wasnt a source of conflict between them? in fact there wasnt much conflict or strife between finn and rey at all??
and i was like actually so relieved. maybe im too empathetic but as i said strife between protagonists stresses me out a lot but this. this was so good. my soul needed this.
Because they’re both goddamn survivors and Rey understands surviving and Finn was honest insomuch as he can and bleeds sincerity through his pores.
I’m so in love with the badass, highly trained Rey, who still scavenges. But instead of scrap metal and parts it’s beautiful, colorful things that are red and orange and green because she never saw those on Jakkuu.
So, sometimes this highly trained Jedi who takes down villains left and right comes up to Poe or Finn and is like ‘look what I got u’ and puts something in their hands and they’re like ‘Rey, it’s a rock’ and she smiles at them and just says ‘yes but it’s a pretty rock. It matches ur jacket.’ and just walks away.
I live for that Rey
Finn is literally the most overt fuck you to toxic masculinity.
Like, here’s a soldier who’s literally known nothing else but his warrior training his whole life, who’s identity has been consumed to the point where he literally has a number instead of a name, seeing what’s expected of him and rejecting it utterly. He’s obviously physically strong and capable, but he finds his humanity in NOT using his strength, and his heroism in finding a reason to use his strength.
He’s afraid for most of the movie, conflicted and hesitant and still able to be brave and strong. In fact, his truest moments of bravery are also the ones where he is the most afraid and uncertain. And his fear is never shamed or set up as a weakness, but rather as a huge part of what makes him both human and heroic.
It’s so important to me to see men allowed to feel a full range of emotions including fear and doubt and sadness and still be seen as strong and valuable.
(I think there is an extra layer to this given that Finn is also a black man, but I’m going to stay in my lane and let PoC tackle that.)
as a POC lemme say that finn is extra wonderful because even when he’s fighting, he never looks scary. there’s always this theme that shows strong black men as intimidating and capable of harm but finn is the opposite of intimidating and from the very start you see that he doesnt want to hurt anyone and his strength is not associated with violence but with the ability to help others and he’s sweet and funny and real and no one would ever be afraid of him and both of the poc male leads are shown as caring and using their strength to protect and you’d never be afraid of either of them and there is no macho bullshit at all and it makes me so happy
And when you work at a movie theater, there’s a myriad of jobs you can be given. My favourite by far is running theater checks, which is basically following a list and making sure that all the screens are running A-okay the entire day, ducking in and out of theaters, and occasionally radioing in if something is wrong–I get paid to watch movie trailers for eight hours–and its glorious.
Then Star Wars comes out and everything is thrown into chaos. The AVX theaters are constantly packed, fans swirl around the lobby in their cloaks and robes, children have lightsaber duels in the arcade, and you have lines in the hall twenty-people-strong of guests trying to snag the perfect seats. To level with you, it’s pretty amazing and magical.
Naturally, any theater showing Star Wars gets put on priority for theater checks–God forbid something happen to mess up your perfect viewing experience, I understand.
When you do theater checks, you need to make sure that the picture is framed correctly, all the guests are quiet, and that the sound for the film is playing properly. You listen to a the first few notes of the opening logos and boom you’re free to move on.
The first bit of audio for The Force Awakens is the earth-shattering and iconic Theme that plays as the yellow text scrolls into its starry infinity.
After seeing the opening to the film for the up-teenth time, I could predict without fail exactly when the music would cue up, and I would often snap my fingers just for laughs, as if I were the one making the music play on command.
It’s my last Star Wars check of the day. I’m standing in the front, ready to go down the list.
In the aisle seat next to me is this kid, and I can see him staring at me behind his 3-D glasses, kids pack of popcorn clutched in his hands.
I give him a little wave, and he waves back. He won’t stop staring at me though, maybe because its just so scandalous to see someone stand in a movie theater.
The theater hushes. On-screen, the Lucasfilm logo glints–and here people clap, I’m still confused about that–fades, and is replaced by ‘a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away’ in blue.
The kid is still staring, and I think, You know what, what the heck?
The blue text fades.
I count, “One Mississippi, two Missip–”
Right before the music blares, I thrust my hand out Force-wielder style, fingers splayed with effort, and the walls vibrate with the opening chords of the Theme.
The kid’s eyes go wide like saucers. Ignoring the opening scroll completely, he mouths to me, “You can Force?”
I nod at him. Hell yeah I can Force, kid. Hell fucking yeah
tldr: I used my intense movie theater knowledge to convince a kid I was a Jedi.
ok here we go pet peeve no. 45678: when girls are made fun of for behaviour that has literally been drilled into them by society. let’s go through some of these.
haha girls are all like “don’t look at me without makeup on!!!!”: maybe because we are taught from a very young age that we’re ugly without makeup. if we don’t wear it we’re asked why we look so tired, why we didn’t make an effort today, why we seem slobbish. as we grow older if we don’t wear makeup we’re seen as unprofessional and it can actually affect our careers but no yeah it definitely doesn’t make sense that we’re insecure about our naked faces whatever
man my gf always takes food from my plate so annoying lol #relatablecontent: probably because she’s fucking starving but it was instilled in her that cute girls eat like precious baby bunnies so she got a salad but all she fuCKING WANTS ARE FRIES. JUST GIVE HER THE FUCKING FRIES.
girls always go to the bathroom together haha lame and weird: mainly so we don’t get attacked asshole. also having a pee buddy is fun i pity you and your pee-buddy-less experience. when do your friends tell you how nice your hair is. oh that’s right they don’t because guys are the fucking worst
look at these drunk girls tottering around on high heels they look ridiculous: i will defend to the death women’s right to get just as completely shitfaced as men and don’t even ACT like it’s not practically fucking mandated that if a woman isn’t wearing high heels she isn’t dressed up. high heels LITERALLY GIVE ME BACK PROBLEMS but i have to wear them for work because if I don’t i’m not “””””professionally dressed”””””” give me a fucking break
WOMAN AND SHOPPING. OHOHOHO BOY.: yeah ok so we have to spend money you don’t on makeup products, skin products, hair removal products, pads and tampons, and on top of that we’re expected to change our clothes more often than you which means we need more of them, and also women’s clothing sizes are voodoo so every fitting session is a battle with your self confidence. AND we pay the gender tax. i fucking hate shopping. i do it because i have to, you buttnerd. and even if some women enjoy shopping im sure some men also enjoy shopping??? why must you gender??? activities??? why is this the world we live in????
girls on their periods are fucking psycho hahaha!!!: no we’re just in more or less constant pain so we have less patience to put up with your your bullshit. not to mention that a woman’s testosterone levels actually INCREASE on her period so GUESS WHO WE’RE MORE FUCKING LIKE, CHAD. GIVE A FUCKING GUESS.
lol girls spend forever in the bathroom lololol: all right first of all if we’re talking about say, a sporting event, and you’re complaining about all the women who are queueing to go to the bathroom, we have a COUPLE MORE STEPS INVOLVED THAN PEOPLE WHO CAN JUST WHIP IT OUT AND THEN TUCK IT AWAY. not to mention the fact that yeah we have to take a second to double check the paint smeared on our faces or the socially acceptable hairstyle we’re wearing. we’re not allowed have fucking buzzcuts chad. apparently having less than the requisite amount of dead protein on the top of our head makes us a target for verbal abuse on the street chad. how about ranting about the people who built the stadium or whatever who KNOW it takes women longer to go to the bathroom but normally lot the same amount of stalls to men and women?? AND IF WE’RE TALKING ABOUT PERSONAL MAINTENANCE yeah ok buddy and how long does it take you to shave your legs? you think I like spending SEVENTY TWO DAYS OUT OF MY LIFE accidentally cutting myself and pulling muscles in my thighs??? well. i dont. so that’s why i don’t do it mainly. but we probably spend the rest of the time slathering ourselves with anti-aging creams because everyone is falling over themselves to tells us that our sell-by date is 35 while George Clooney and RDJ will probably continue to play wry sexy playboys until their fucking hips fall off. go fuck yourself chad.
GOD. I CAN’T EVEN GO ON. ADD YOUR OWN IF YOU THINK OF MORE.
this post is gold
I hate you Chad
i was not expecting this to get popular at all but i will tell you one joyous thing: over 2,000 notes so far and not one single person has disagreed. WE ALL KNOW ITS BULLSHIT AND THAT IS SOMETHING AT LEAST.
Don’t forget:
what’s with the enormous purses women carry around?: you can fit a 10 year old child’s deluxe train set down any of the 14 different pockets in your cargo pants and I have a seam pretending to be a pocket sewn on to a blue compression bandage pretending to be jeans so don’t even
Leverage is one of the few shows that I was completely happy with the finale. It hit just the right notes and gave me exactly what I wanted to end this amazing show.
Tbh, the only complaint I have is that there’s no more Leverage.
I do not understand this “male privilege" bullshit.
What. Fucking. Privileges. Do. Men. Have.???????
Name them. I swear, I challenge you to name these “male privileges" and be able to prove them.
Come on, I fucking dare you.
Name them!
Oh boy. Well, as a man, I’ll tell you my male privilege.
My odds of being hired for a job, when competing against female applicants, are probably skewed in my favor. The more prestigious the job, the larger the odds are skewed.
I can be confident in the fact that my co-workers won’t think that I was hired/promoted because of my sex - despite the fact that it’s probably true.
If I ever am promoted when a woman of my peers is better suited for the job, it is because of my sex.
If i ever fail at my job or career, it won’t be seen as a blacklist against my sex’s capabilities.
I am far less likely to face sexual harassment than my female peers.
If I do the same task as a woman, and if the measurement is at all subjective, chances are people will think I did a better job.
If I am a teen or an adult, and I stay out of prison, my odds of getting raped are relatively low.
On average, I’m taught that walking alone after dark by myself is less than dangerous than it is for my female peers.
If I choose not to have children, my masculinity will not be questioned.
If I do have children but I do not provide primary care for them, my masculinity will not be questioned.
If I have children and I do care for them, I’ll be praised even if my care is only marginally competent.
If I have children and a career, no one will think I’m selfish for not staying at home.
If I seek political office, my relationship with my children or who I deem to take care of them will more often not be scrutinized by the press.
My elected representatives are mostly people of my own sex. The more prestigious the position, the more this is true.
When i seek out “the person in charge", it is likely that they will be someone of my own sex. The higher the position, the more often this is true.
As a child, chances are I am encouraged to be more active and outgoing than my sisters.
As a child, I could choose from an almost infinite variety of children’s media featuring positive, active, non-stereotyped heroes of my own sex. I never had to look for it; male protagonists were (and are) the default.
As a child, chances are I got more teacher attention than girls who raised their hands just as often.
If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether or not it has sexist overtones. (Nobody’s going to ask if I’m upset because I’m menstruating.)
I can turn on the television or glance at the front page of the newspaper and see people of my own sex widely represented.
If I’m careless with my financial affairs it won’t be attributed to my sex.
If I’m careless with my driving it won’t be attributed to my sex.
I can speak in public to a large group without putting my sex on trial.
Even if I sleep with a lot of women, there is little to no chance that I will be seriously labeled a “slut,” nor is there any male counterpart to “slut-bashing.”
I do not have to worry about the message my wardrobe sends about my sexual availability.
My clothing is typically less expensive and better-constructed than women’s clothing for the same social status. While I have fewer options, my clothes will probably fit better than a woman’s without tailoring.
The grooming regimen expected of me is relatively cheap and consumes little time.
If I buy a new car, chances are I’ll be offered a better price than a woman buying the same car. The same goes for other expensive merchandise.
If I’m not conventionally attractive, the disadvantages are relatively small and easy to ignore.
I can be loud with no fear of being called a shrew. I can be aggressive with no fear of being called a bitch.
I can ask for legal protection from violence that happens mostly to men without being seen as a selfish special interest, since that kind of violence is called “crime” and is a general social concern. (Violence that happens mostly to women is usually called “domestic violence” or “acquaintance rape,” and is seen as a special interest issue.)
I can be confident that the ordinary language of day-to-day existence will always include my sex. “All men are created equal,” mailman, chairman, freshman, he.
My ability to make important decisions and my capability in general will never be questioned depending on what time of the month it is.
I will never be expected to change my name upon marriage or questioned if I don’t change my name.
The decision to hire me will not be based on assumptions about whether or not I might choose to have a family sometime soon.
Every major religion in the world is led primarily by people of my own sex. Even God, in most major religions, is pictured as male.
Most major religions argue that I should be the head of my household, while my wife and children should be subservient to me.
If I have a wife or live-in girlfriend, chances are we’ll divide up household chores so that she does most of the labor, and in particular the most repetitive and unrewarding tasks.
If I have children with my girlfriend or wife, I can expect her to do most of the basic childcare such as changing diapers and feeding.
If I have children with my wife or girlfriend, and it turns out that one of us needs to make career sacrifices to raise the kids, chances are we’ll both assume the career sacrificed should be hers.
Assuming I am heterosexual, magazines, billboards, television, movies, pornography, and virtually all of media is filled with images of scantily-clad women intended to appeal to me sexually. Such images of men exist, but are rarer.
In general, I am under much less pressure to be thin than my female counterparts are. If I am over-weight, I probably suffer fewer social and economic consequences for being fat than over-weight women do.
If I am heterosexual, it’s incredibly unlikely that I’ll ever be beaten up by a spouse or lover.
Complete strangers generally do not walk up to me on the street and tell me to “smile.”
Sexual harassment on the street virtually never happens to me. I do not need to plot my movements through public space in order to avoid being sexually harassed, or to mitigate sexual harassment.
On average, I am not interrupted by women as often as women are interrupted by men.
On average, I will have the privilege of not knowing about my male privilege.
And lastly, I am taken as a more credible feminist than my female peers, despite the fact that the feminist movement is not liberating to my sex.
This is male privilege.
THIS. THIS IS HOW YOU BE A MALE FEMINIST.
This is a BEAUTIFUL breakdown of male privilege, and one that should be read to ANYONE who thinks that we are living in a post-sexist society.
And it’s good that the commenter uses phrases like “on average” and “it’s unlikely” on several of the points, thus preventing the automatic response of “NOT ALL MEN.” Because these things DO happen, but that’s a separate issue from male privilege and the need for feminism.
Honestly I feel sort of ridiculously lucky re: potential ships in the upcoming Star Wars movies, and I’m realizing that it’s possibly just me? But LET ME LAY THIS OUT FOR YOU.
MOST LIKELY: Finn/Rey. These two children are cute as shit. They’re just so damn excited about the world and the universe and green and the Force and each other. Finn is all star-eyes and bear hugs, and Rey is all toothy grins and fierce protection. It’s fucking precious. Sit with me and think about Rey coming back from Fuckety Nowhere to find Finn recovered from his injuries and learning how to be Resistance, and she bounces off the Falcon and runs up to him and throws her arms around his neck for a hug like they did in Starkiller, and when she pulls away she holds onto one of his hands and they smile at each other like the adorable little fucks they are. BONUS: interracial relationship between a white woman and a black man, which is still something that’s considered more than a little taboo. Racism is a thing guys, and it’s SO IMPORTANT that representation of this sort of relationship be in the media, especially in such a big-name franchise as Star Wars. Finn is affectionate, self-determining, and allowed to show emotions like fear and anxiety without any in-narrative penalties, and that is NOVEL, unfortunately. And Rey is…well, Rey. Come on, guys, I want to be Rey when I grow up and I’m sure you do too. She’s able to be the hero, and not in the sense a lot of us are familiar with: there’s no assault, no rape, nothing like that. She just finds a droid, and then she finds a lightsaber, and then she has the Force, and then she fights for the people she cares about, which is the same way that Luke became a hero. No one criticizes her for being female. THIS WOULD BE A GREAT COUPLE.
SECOND MOST LIKELY: Finn/Poe. The jaCKET? That is all? No, seriously, though, this would be a great ship: the dashing pilot and the rogue Stormtrooper. The entire base would ship it. Poe would shout down anyone who talked about Finn being a spy, and Finn would learn Droid to talk to BB-8, Poe’s best friend. This would be a ship with a lot of teasing smiles and laughing, arms around shoulders and warm support. It would be about Finn learning to be an independent person and Poe welcoming someone new into his family. BONUS: interracial gay relationship between a Guatemalan man and a black man, which is a little taboo in a different way. Homophobia is a thing guys, and it’s SO IMPORTANT that representation of this sort of relationship be in the media, especially in cuh a big-name franchise as Star Wars. Finn is everything I described above, and Poe is dashing, confident, intelligent, skilled…and caring toward his squadron, kind to a stranger, and respectful toward women, including those who have authority over him like Leia (insert battle hymn about the greatness of General Leia here). Poe is a whole other thing from the standard cocky bastard of a pilot we know from movies and TV. And please sign me right on up for this new type of dashing heroic gentleman, I am on this bullet train to a brighter future and you should be too. THIS WOULD ALSO BE A GREAT COUPLE.
OTHER MORE UNLIKELY COUPLES: The Damerons (Finn/Poe/Rey). It would be great for all of the reasons above, with the addition of the Poe-Rey dynamic of, I imagine, “Look at how beautiful and powerful and glorious this girl is” from Poe’s angle and “You are nice to me and handsome and I’m not sure what to do with any of that” from Rey’s. Technically the best of all worlds (interracial! everyone is bi except possibly Rey!), but unlikely because, well, it’s a threesome, and that renders it frankly improbable for Hollywood to make it a thing.
And of course, THE ONE PAIRING I’M NOT EXCITED ABOUT: Kylo/Rey. Um. No. Not least because things are looking like she’s going to be Rey Skywalker and that makes them EITHER first cousins OR siblings, depending on which twin is Rey’s parent, and yes, Luke and Leia were almost a thing, but let’s just take a hard line on No Incest this go-round, shall we? But also because that would, I think, be wildly unhealthy unless they pulled off some sort of miracle. And because honestly my main interest in a redemption arc for Kylo is the one that is Entirely For Leia’s Benefit, and I’ve read enough stories about poor damaged boys whose actions weren’t their fault at all being saved from themselves by the purity of love and…like…give the man the dignity of his own choices, okay? I can feel sorry for Kylo because of the way he’s so clearly been manipulated and groomed by Snoke, but unless there’s evidence of actual legitimate mind control it’s still his choice to side with the Dark. I have a lot of firm opinions about human dignity and free will and even though he’s currently a spectacular bastard, Kylo Ren still has free will and he has exercised it and as a human being he deserves to have his choices recognized as his own.
ANYWAY. My point here is that no matter what you ship hardest, it needs to be recognized that either of the two most likely ships to happen will be almost groundbreaking in the representation they’ll offer. I will make no judgements and fight no wars about what kind of representation is ‘most important’ because, you know what, it’s ALL important. It matters that kids see interracial relationships on the big screen, presented as grand sweeping romances rather than comedy or tragedy. It matters that kids see gay relationships that way. It is important that teenagers and adults and children look at the characters they love and see themselves there, see the people they love there, see their friendships and relationships there. Duking it out about who is more oppressed and therefore more deserving of that representation lessens us as people. You, as a person reading this, deserve to see yourself in a character, in a hero, and so do the other people on the street, friends, strangers, enemies.
I want us to have it all, guys. I want you to have everything: trans characters who are fierce and strong, women who can save galaxies, men who can be gentle and emotional and heroic, gay and lesbian romances full of light and laughter, racial diversity because, hey, when your copilot is covered in ten inches of hair what’s a little melanin between friends. I want you to have ace characters with adoring husbands and wives, nonbinary characters and genderfluid characters whose friends would die for them no matter what their pronouns are today and vice versa, aro characters with badass spaceships full of loyal crew they love, characters with ADHD and autism and schizophrenia and depression going out to save the world with the people who care about them, physically disabled characters with blasters concealed in their prosthetics or souped up hoverchairs. ALL OF IT. And this movie series isn’t going to give us all that, because all of that is…it’s a lot to ask, and I know it, but I want it anyway. But this movie is virtually guaranteed to give us something, some starting point, and you know what? I’m ready to take what I can get while I work on finding a way to give you guys everything.
