I'm Really Kerfuzzled Today. Here's The Breakdown Of Why:

Kikyo Gate (Kikyomon), from the series “Twenty Views of Tokyo (Tokyo nijukkei)”, Kawase Hasui, 1929, Art Institute of Chicago: Asian Art

Gift of Oliver Statler Size: 38.9 x 26 cm (15 5/16 x 10 ¼ in.) Medium: Color woodblock print; oban

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/87304/

Toxic pro-choice culture is:

A client of mine’s daughter had pregnancy complications and ended up miscarrying in the hospital. When she was discharged, heartbroken, she and her husband were leaving to begin to make plans for a little funeral when one of the hospital staff stopped them and said “here it is,” handing them a brown paper lunchbag with the body in it, and walked off without any kind or consoling words. Striken by the indignity of it, left without instructions, and still recovering, they didn’t know what else to do except take it home and put it in their refridgerator so that it wouldn’t decay as fast while they tried to make funeral arraingements.

Can you imagine the horror? You just unexpectedly lost your child, and it’s body is handed to you in a rude sack, leaving you with no other options except to keep it in your fridge?

And my client, as she was telling me this traumatic story, tearing up herself because she shared her daughter’s grief and loved the grandbaby that didn’t make it, thought she needed to emphasize to me how much of a loss it was because “it was a wanted baby.”

The pro-choice culture where I live is so vulgar and prominant that hospitals toss the remains of your unborn child to you as if it was nothing, and a greiving grandmother feels like she has to justify her sorrow by clarifying that it was a “wanted” child, to not go against the culture of “it’s perfectly fine to abort your pregnancy if you don’t want a baby!” But there is no difference between an unborn child who is wanted and one who is not. They are the same from every biological and moral standpoint.

It’s simply alien how much more acceptable it is to talk about supporting abortion rights than grieving the death of a “wanted” unborn child. In their hearts they know the dichotomy, but it isn’t okay to try to address it and solve it, since pro-choice is the only acceptable stance to most people.

once, according to myth

a boy saw himself too clearly

bruised his knees on river rocks

strained his neck to keep seeing

a girl saw him too,

too clearly, too sweetly

hollowed out her heart

carved out her ribs to see his smile 

knelt between the rocks until 

her limbs and words turned to stone

his thoughts echoed back

from the cavern of her chest’s cavity

so this is the act of loving,

she thought,

and never said a word

— to Narcissus, from Echo

I rly love them

I don’t think a Shakespeare production needs to be innovative to be good.

A lot of the best stage and film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays are relatively simple and straightforward. They don’t use flashy tricks or strange setting choices. The directors simply let the text shine. You don’t need to put a new spin on Shakespeare to make it good; all you need are good actors who understand the text.

Of course, I have nothing against creative production choices! I love them when they’re done well. But I think we need to bring back our appreciation for well-done, classical stagings, because they’re absolutely delightful.

i really can’t stress enough how much i recommend regularly engaging with older art– movies, books, whatever. like, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it” and all that, but also, there’s just something really fascinating and kind of beautiful about reading something written by someone who lived so long ago and really connecting with it, recognizing the humanity of people who once seemed like abstract concepts to you

The Andrews Sisters (from Left to Right : Laverne, Patty and Maxene) mid 1940’s

I never hear people saying "manic pixie girlfriend" as a compliment to a piece of fiction... What is it you like about that trope? 👀👀👀

girls being girls unapologetically!!!

thanks for asking bc this was a LOT of fun to think about and answer and it ran kinda long but uh THERE’S A LOT TO COVER.

like, yea, ok, there’s a legitimate literary complaint to be made when women are used repeatedly as a vehicle for a man’s exposure to a more exciting life, but actually, the complaint isn’t ‘this woman doesn’t have autonomy’, but more like...Well. the quote at the top of the tv tropes is just about perfect.

(not to mention, no trope in and of itself is bad - its the execution and overuse of tropes that can be bad. so even the actual ‘give women more autonomy instead of making her a plot element for a dude’ complaint is only partially valid. and sometimes its just straight up to personal taste! one person likes oranges, one person likes apples. so they eat different pies. that’s just fine. doesn’t make one objectively worse.)

it’s that whole ‘leave white girls alone about pumpkin spice’ thing, like, sometimes people can just like things and have personality traits. 

let girls be manic! let them like polka dots! let them wear tutus over jeans, paint their nails different colors, and wear glitter every day! let them mix combat boots with floofy skirts! let them wear double pony tails!

let girls be naive, let girls be childish, let girls be dreamers! and u know what!! let them pull other people into their dreams, laughing and singing and dancing and being so unapologetically full of the gift from God that is life that they show others what a wonder it is to be alive!!!

there is nothing wrong with being so wonderfully manic that you make those around you a little less lethargic. 

or - sometimes it can be wrong, and that’s a great set up for what motivates stories: conflict! what happens when your extrovert girlfriend wants to go to a different event every night and you, the tired introvert boyfriend, just wants to sit in and watch a movie with her? how do you compromise and fulfill each other’s needs? is it even possible? is it worth it? what happens when the adventure that manic pixie girl drags the boy into isn’t what the boy wants, or is more than the boy can take, or is only fun when the girl is there and apart from her isn’t worth it? what happens when she annoys her best friend because she blows glitter all over the room? what happens when she drops off the face of the earth for a month and misses school? 

explore the trope!! don’t write it off, don’t never eat a pumpkin spice latte because people make fun of white girls for liking pumpkin spice lattes. pumpkin spice lattes are great. 

for an example of a FANTASTIC manic pixie dream girl with excellent conflicts, look at pinkie pie from mlp:fim. like, literally. she’s off the walls energetic and drags everyone into her shenanigans and its WONDERFUL!!! she breaks into twilight’s home to throw her a welcome to town party on the day they meet! first episode and she’s already trying to cram twi into a brighter lifestyle! absolutely iconic. there are times when she’s obnoxious and upsets those around her with her mindless, manic energy, and there are times when her unending optimism and bright personality save the day. she’s given serious moments, sad moments, and determined moments, and all of these are just strengthened by her manic pixie girl personality. (i do think she’s not recognized as a manic pixie girl because she doesn’t have a romantic interest, but aside from not dragging her boyfriend or a local sadboi into stuff...she’s a manic pixie dreamgirl.)

Also, tons of respect to the guy who originally coined the term:

Rabin would later disown the term, because instead of creating awareness of the "lack of independent goals in female characters", the concept was misunderstood as a condemnation of ALL quirky and fun female characters.

IN CONCLUSION.

manic pixie dream girls get written off because sometimes they’re just used as vehicles for the male protag, and sometimes just because they’re a bundle of girlilsh traits that aren’t appealing to certain people, and sometimes because their blindingly bright outlook is seen as bad and/or unrealistic.

and that’s a crying shame.

I like pumpkin spice lattes, I like glitter, I like characters that are so ridiculously over the top energetic and bright that that rubs off on their friends, and I’m going to write so many fun, quirky girls who are unapologetic about their ‘girly’ traits and encourage those around them to Live. :D

Men are not bad. Even if they're cis, het, white, abled, christian, and whatever other privileged identity that can be applied. Men can be bad, but badness is not a male trait. It is not inherent nor exclusive to men. There are amazing men. There are horrible women. No characteristics are inherent to any gender. It is okay, wonderful even, to be a man. Just like it is with any other gender.