let me make one thing real clear. ableism & weight discrimination not only go hand in hand but are inextricably entwined with often fatal results
there’s no place in antiableism, disability advocacy, or cripple punk for fat jokes or the people who make them. fucking none
This white boy came over a month ago and asked why my pillow was shiny. I told him it was satin, because I need a satin case to maintain my natural hairstyle overnight.
This past weekend I stayed over at his house after a party because it was too late to go back to Manhattan, and when I got in bed I noticed that one of his pillowcases was satin.
I asked him why a white, nearly bald man needed a satin pillowcase and he said he bought it for me, in case I needed to sleep over sometime. He didn’t want me to ruin my hair on cotton.
I kissed the ever-loving shit out of him.
That’s how you show a brown girl you care.
Update: he’s my boyfriend. our 1 year anniversary is coming up next month.
New Update: We had our two year anniversary on August 9th.
We also have moved in together.
As we went through his stuff for the move, we found the last of those pillowcases he bought for me in 2015.
Every time I reread the Hunger Games trilogy I become more furious about the movie representation.
These books were about an indigenous woman (with a brain injury in book 3) living in poverty overthrowing a corrupt white government.
She was demisexual, had stomach hair, was not even remotely romantically driven (and canonically didn’t even find romance until after she had finished a revolution.)
And Peeta was disabled and physically abused as a child and they both suffered from mental health problems and the parallel between the Capitol and the ruling rich was so very transparent.
And I’m seeing fun coloured makeup in stores labeled “Capitol colours from the Hunger Games”!
These books were about the revolution of the most oppressed taking over the extravagance and elitism and decadence of the ruling class while citizens starved.
These books were a parallel to our current social dynamics, they were a call to arms. They were a battle cry for the impeding ruin of the rich white ruling class.
And the movies portrayed them as a fantasy, a romance story, a cute little tale. When the real story in the books was one of strength and upheaval and shifting paradigms and revolutions.
And like…… the death of a young Black child sparked the rebellion.
When Katniss thinks about running away in the second book it is the memory of Rue that makes her decide to stay and “cause all kinds of trouble.”
That is an indigenous woman deciding that the death of a Black child is so horrific and unacceptable that she needs to start an entire uprising about it. That is WOC solidarity.
Then again, when Katniss is talking with Peeta about not leaving he literally, canonically and verbally SAYS it’s because of Rue.
The movies did not lend enough weight to the injustice and violence that Black women face; they didn’t waste any time in deciding the rebellion came from their White Katniss’s determination to overthrow the Capitol.
The movies purposely and aggressively erased all of the racial oppression and power and dynamics that were so apparent in the books.
They made Katniss white, they made Gale white, they erased Peeta’s amputation, they seriously diminished the PTSD both of them faced (which was actually one of the more accuract accounts of PTSD I had ever read in the books), they drastically lessened the weight and importance of Rue’s death.
Anyway, fuck the movies. The books are miraculous. Right down to the respect of survival sex workers. Right down to the power imbalances of society being set in the hands of a violent old white man who has surgery to appear younger.
The author said these books was based on her interpretation of kids’ experiences in war torn Vietnam and Iraq. None of these kids were supposed to be white.
I’m SO glad I read these comments, because the movies discoureged me from reading the books. Fuck the movies, I’m so going to read the books now and see the real deal, and not find just another “white teenage romatic novel”
“you’re an art model does that mean you’re NAKED?” “yeah” “whoa….those lucky artists ;)”
…buddy.
idk who started the idea that life drawing classes have anything sexy going on like. there’s at least ten people in the room and we’re all tired and covered in charcoal.
the dude in front who’s staring at my boobs has been trying to get the shading right for 10 minutes. he’s almost out of paint. he is crying.
The ice burg being frozen solid because there are NEVER ENOUGH SPACE HEATERS.
I was an artist’s model in uni since it paid better than any other student work position. Did a life drawing class one semester, despite it being an unheated old building in the winter evenings, because the instructor was a decent fellow who always had extra space heaters. So there I am one evening, exhausted from my team’s afternoon practice, but I’m in a comfortable position on a padded stool, ready to hold the position for like fifteen minutes. Space heaters all around me, spotlights on me to get shadows in interesting places.
Beyond the red glow of the heaters and the hot-white of the spotlights, the massive drafty room is dark and quiet, broken only by the instructor’s whispers and the scratch of charcoal on paper. Me, I’m just dozing, ‘cause my ancient dorm was heated with creaky old steampipes that never really got warm, and with the new extra-powered space heater alongside the others, that night was the warmest I’d been in a month. I dozed, basking in the glorious warmth.
And then I fell asleep.
And then I fell off the stool.
I woke up rather abruptly on the cold wooden platform, and looked up to see an entire ring of terrified and worried faces around me. Everyone had their hands up, ready to help me up, except no one had touched me. Naked chick laid out face-down on the floor, and all the men and women were suddenly acutely aware they couldn’t just grab a half-asleep dazed naked chick.
Fortunately someone had the bright idea to tear the sheet down from the backdrop, lay it over me as a wrap, and then everyone was quick to help me up.
After that, the instructor and students got used to taking turns talking to me, just to make sure I wasn’t dozing off. Which was weird, at first, because I’d done two semesters just being a silent prop, and now I was interacting. It gave the class a vibe completely unlike any other I’d modeled for, and it ended up one of my favorite modeling experiences.
postscript: months later, walking on campus with someone who’d eventually become my spouse, we passed some guys on the main path. One of them stopped, peered at me, and then said hello, excitedly, saying, “sorry, I didn’t recognize you, I’ve never seen you with your clothes on!”
This is honestly so delightful and accurate
The only situation where saying “I’ve never seen you with your clothes on” is a completely normal thing to say.
Yes Jacob and Emmett have a successful YouTube channel but have we considered
Jasper, the camera man, having his own more popular channel. It’s just behind the scenes clips. All the times they’ve been kicked out of water parks. The awkward car rides as Jacob holds his various broken limbs. Emmett smashing an entire cake onto Jacob’s face while he’s sleeping and Jacob screaming “YOU BETTER NOT PUT THIS ON THE FUCKING INTERNET”
There’s a five part series where Jasper interviews everyone and says “how has the friendship between Jacob and Emmett affected you personally?”
Seth cries. Edward just says “somehow, they give me headaches.” Leah breaks the camera.
Sometimes there are just videos of Jasper and Alice quietly sitting on the balcony enjoying the sunset. You can hear screaming coming from inside the house.
So something truly awful I realised about vampires is that they’re meant to like growl and hiss when they’re angry right? But like if some weirdo started growling at me I’m not gonna think “oh scary” but “what have I done to piss off this furry?” In this essay I will explore…