Saying Something You Know Will Make People Laugh. And They Do Laugh.

Let’s make a giant F in the chat for those who don’t have polls yet.

If the last digit of the votes is 1, 2, 3 or 4, vote for the first. If it’s 5, vote for the second, if it’s 6, 7, or 8, vote for the third. If it’s 9, the fourth, and if it’s 0, the last. Please reblog to make the biggest F possible 🤗

soleoado  

male gaze is not 'when person look sexy' or 'when misogynist make film'

death of the author is not 'miku wrote this'

I don't think you have to read either essay to grasp the basic concepts

death of the author means that once a work is complete, what the author believes it to mean is irrelevant to critical analysis of what's in the text. it means when analysing the meaning of a text you prioritise reader interpretation above author intention, and that an interpretation can hold valid meaning even if it's utterly unintentional on the part of the person who created the thing. it doesn't mean 'i can ignore that the person who made this is a bigot' - it may in fact often mean 'this piece of art holds a lot of bigoted meanings that the author probably wasn't intentionally trying to convey but did anyway, and it's worth addressing that on its own terms regardless of whether the author recognises it's there.' it's important to understand because most artists are not consciously and vocally aware of all the possible meanings of their art, and because art is communal and interpretive. and because what somebody thinks they mean, what you think somebody means, and what a text is saying to you are three entirely different things and it's important to be able to tell the difference.

male gaze is a cinematographic theory on how films construct subjectivity (ie who you identify with and who you look at). it argues that film language assumes that the watcher is a (cis straight white hegemonically normative) man, and treats men as relatable subjects and women as unknowable objects - men as people with interior lives and women as things to be looked at or interacted with but not related to. this includes sexual objectification and voyeurism, but it doesn't mean 'finding a lady sexy' or 'looking with a sexual lens', it means the ways in which visual languages strip women of interiority and encourage us to understand only men as relatable people. it's important to understand this because not all related gaze theories are sexual in nature and if you can't get a grip on male gaze beyond 'sexual imagery', you're really going to struggle with concepts of white or abled or cis subjectivities.

Don’t let it be you

Kind of hard to believe there was once a time where a legitimate genre of post was "my mom says if this gets 2k notes she'll buy me a doughnut" and everyone would just. go ham

“if they treated islam that way instead of christianity everyone would be upset but because christianity receives that treatment nobody cares”

I've seen this mentioned many times the last couple of months and I can’t help but want to cackle every time I hear it. the reason being, I've been simultaneously raised christian and muslim pretty much since I was a born until I became a teenager and rejected both religions (it’s a long story I'll spare you the ramblings).

anyways being raised that way has left me with twice the religious trauma (neat!) and I think and hope an insightful perspective regarding this statement about how it’s super “unfair” that Islam gets treated “better” than christianity. to me christianity and islam are unsettlingly similar expect for a few major differences. the first of those differences being (you guessed it!) discrimination. the disdain, violence, exclusion, disgust and hatred that are targeted at muslims is ya know dangerous. on the other hand in the current year and place where I live there is no discrimination towards christians (if anything they most of the time do the discriminating). 

soooo criticizing, ridiculing and or rebelling against both of these religions comes with potentially very different consequences. what are some of the consequences for christianity? you’ll give people hurt by christianity comfort and or tools/motivation to break free from a religion that was probably forced upon them and some christians feewings get hurt UwU. 

for islam tho? any criticism risks being used as the ammunition used by islamophobes to discriminate and harm innocents. maybe you think I'm making too big a deal out of this point but I'd like to point to the whole “narcissistic abuse” thing and ask you if you’ve ever wondered how that has impacted folks with npd. of course I think both people who have been hurt by islam and people who have been abused by someone with a stigmatized and demonized disorder absolutely should be able criticize that which has, and those who have, hurt them. but! I also think they owe it to those folks who have to deal with the fallout to at least try to criticize and vent in a way that doesn’t just transfer your pain onto them (and further stigmatize and demonize people). 

so to the people who cry about shit like bikinis with the father, the son and the holy spirit printed on it and whine that this would never happen to islam and it’s unfair that christianity gets treated this way, I request that you cry harder and less loudly, because I assure you that your little tear puddle of righteous indignation is infinitesimal compared to the oceans of unending pain your funky little cult has caused countless innocents. 

and to wrap this incoherent mess of my opinion and my feelings up. i think people should be free to follow their own religions and I also think people who have suffered by the hand of those religions are allowed to make art, jokes, sexually explicit material and what have you about those religions to cope with their trauma. but I personally draw the line at obliviously and ignorantly using coping strategies that happen to further contribute to discrimination, stigmatization and demonization of vulnerable people. and lastly I think I should be allowed to hunt the christian god for sport and eat his bones : ) 

Video of a kitten at a vet’s office protesting loudly as it’s scooped from the floor. Another kitten turns around the corner and walks up to the camera, also protesting loudly for its friend. From here.

I will be like "I'm fine" and then another fucking event will occur

I have a funny feeling I need to widen the upper area some more but I like this so far