silver

Today a dead stinkbug fell out of the washing machine as I was unloading it. I definitely screamed and flailed. This has never happened before and I dearly hope NEVER WILL AGAIN

I am telling you all this to spread the pain around and also to let you know to beware of washing machines. But you knew that already.

When you see this post, feel encouraged to post something in your journal. Short or long, trivial or profound, it doesn't matter, just something. And if you like, you can pass on the token by copying this notice at the bottom of your post. (Seen most recnetly on eustacia_vye's journal but also via dhampyresa and wordsofastory).

Someone posts to fandomsecrets about Disney Specifically, that the song Kiss the Girl isn't sexist.

In this scene Ariel is consenting silently, as she's been rendered mute, but holy cow those lyrics are creepy.


In the context of the WHOLE ENTIRE MOVIE, they're acceptable, as her whole intent is to get Eric to kiss her.

The premise is troubling: girl wants to transform into another species (approximately) altogether, leave behind everything she's known, all her family, makes a deal with what she considers evil, just to win the boy. Courageous, yes. The fact that the boy doesn't do anything, doesn't need to do anything? And she has to give up her whole world to do be with him?

If we lived in a world where we don't have a history of one gender with greater privilege over another (HINT: misogyny is the word) this movie would be fine. The problem is we don't live in that world.

But to those people who are arguing that this has no real life repercussions? (raaaaaage: Sexism does not manifest itself with blatant slurs or outright assault alone. It's obviously more subtle than you can pick up.) The people who don't want to admit that Disney is sexist? (I'll be back; I just need to check to make sure this is the same universe I woke up in. You are so oblivious I can't believe you're serious.)

I have news for you.

One single movie about a woman who has marriage as the culmination of her dreams is fine. A hundred movies saying that is okay. It's not an unreasonable dream, and we are not all the same and do not agree on dreams. But when nearly every Disney movie (qualified because I have not watched them all) does end that way, there is a big problem. Belle, who is a heroine I love (the admiration for Page's voice is helpful) dreams of something bigger, better, and ends up marrying. Cinderella wants to escape her life of drudgery - she marries, and it's all a magic dream; it's nothing she's really done. Snow White is rescued by someone riding by at random; for Sleeping Beauty, ditto. Meg gets married; Mulan gets married. As examples build up, you cannot claim that this is only one girl's dream, and not the silent expectation in society, women and men alike.

I do not believe the Disney producers intended to be sexist. *Intent is magical! But the fact that even The Princess and the Frog, a movie released in 2009, has the girl predictably happily-married only shows that nothing has really changed. The message underneath it all is: for a happy ending, you need to be married.

One Disney movie like this = not a problem. All Disney movies with the subtle implications about how one can live a good life = a very, very big problem, and I am sorry that you cannot see this.

*Thank you also for the side helping of ablism.

I feel like I've stepped in a timewarp or something.

( TMI! )

And in my mind all day was the poem (the last lines have a tendency to stick):

THE WATCH
Frances Cornford (1886-1960)

I wakened on my hot, hard bed,
Upon the pillow lay my head;
Beneath the pillow I could hear
My little watch was ticking clear.
I thought the throbbing of it went
Like my continual discontent;
I thought it said in every tick:
I am so sick, so sick, so sick;
O death, come quick, come quick, come quick,
Come quick, come quick, come quick, come quick.

I saw this post come up this morning. I thought: "OK, it's not horribly bad; it looks like the OP, after some comments, could see why this is offensive and maybe it'll be okay!" This is the text of the OP's post, in case it gets taken down.

( ... )

I gave up trying to read the twisting comments of the OP after awhile. But seeing saciel start to pull out the tone argument--again and again and AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN--I...I...I don't know. I remember zie from the last time fanficrants went and got into a huge racefail, but seeing so many people--half-a-dozen, at least--try to explain, again and again, PATIENTLY AND CALMLY (Oh my God, the irony) why zie was wrong, it didn't sink in. And so all I can repeat is OW OW OW.

ETA: There's actually quite a nice little summation by lil_utterance about why this post's comments are so very faily. Here.

So I went to the dentist today.

[dramatic pause]

Erm, yes. I now understand other kids' dislike of the dentist (although in this case, it was the hygenicist). She took one of those pointed metal things--sharpandsteelandohmygoditlooksscary--and scraped my teeth. All over. And now this might be TMI, but it was under my teeth, around the gums, and along the insides, where I could feel the metal through my tooth. Urgh.

On the other hand, I now know where my salivary glands enter my mouth, that lingual amylase is fast enough to convert starch to sugar in the mouth (really?) and that I have cavities. Oh, and also? Smiling people are not always trustworthy. I thought my hygenicist was so friendly--!

More dental work in store for the summer. :(

Oh, and also: HAPPY CANADA DAY! I would've posted this earlier (i.e. yesterday, July 1) except my computer is currently not on speaking terms with me and has decided to cut out the internet connection at random.

I was talking with friends a few weeks ago, when the conversation turned to insects and bugs (and arachnids, but this is quite unscientific.) They'd lived in Australia, and so had some pretty impressive stories to tell--giant bugs the likes of which are unimaginable by us in the north (the cold weather's good for something, at any rate) and poisonous things that don't exist here. They told me that they had become quite paranoid, checking the toilet bowl before using it, because insects would frequently be there, a habit that they still retained. I started to do the same, checking around, especially in the basement, where there are things that run around. :(

For awhile I thought I was simply being paranoid--that is, until today when I saw a millipede slink across the tiled floor. I couldn't squish it in time, and now it's making me antsy, knowing that it's somewhere.

Incidentally, I kind of envy the millipede's speed. Those legs make the walking pattern of the bug really smooth, and it seems lithe and agile. No less 'ew', though.