i am once again living for tumblr posts with these two
orig post by @laststandx3
this post is not gonna be well put together but i am having feelings
mean girls is trending right now because the musical movie just came out and i feel insane. idk why i do, it was stupid of me to think that most people Got It, no one ever gets it, it was always about the memes and the aesthetic.
the first mean girls movie was based on a nonfiction book called queen bees and wannabes. it interviewed and discussed the social caste system in teen girl friendships. how they hold each other to these insane standards of heternormative femininity out of sheer terror that they won’t meet those standards themselves. the way they leverage their relationships for some small degree of power in a world designed to strip them of it, even if it drags other girls down.
the “you can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week and on wednesdays we wear pink” speech was not an original creation for the script. it’s a QUOTE from a real teenage girl. those were REAL RULES.
then the musical came, and it was one step removed from the intended messaging of the film. OG mean girls was not perfect (and was extremely racist), but it said what needed said. the musical leaned on the comedy more, but still left a heartfelt undertone, and still critiqued the systems in place. of course no piece of media is going to be perfect, but it was about the conversation.
then this new movie comes out and it is washed over in the veneer of white hollywood feminism so thick you can’t see anymore. the problematic aspects of the original movie are taken out to avoid “offending” when the offense was the point. it becomes toothless, it becomes some other thing entirely. they changed karen’s line “i expect to run the world in shoes i cannot walk in” to “watch me as i run the world in shoes i cannot walk in.” because choice feminism is in vogue, suddenly this character whose entire point is that she doesn’t think deeply about WHY she does anything is suddenly hip to the fact that the world is against her.
i think of sokka losing his misogyny arc in the new atla. i think of the Heathers remake casting the bitchy, identical heathers as queer and hollywood-fat outcasts. as if the story, the meaning, the allegory is hidden in the sets and the jokes and the music. it’s a whole new thing now, and it’s a thing that means nothing in particular.
the plastics should not wear jeans. they should not have curves. their queerness should be suppressed, painful. their sexuality is not a slay, it’s the only thing they think they have of value. the santa dance isn’t sexy, it’s shocking, it’s mortifying - they are children.
they’re not mean because “we are all mean.” they are mean because they are girls in a world that brutalizes them and crushes them into a standardized shape. they are mean because the world is mean to them. they are mean because it gives them some power back. they are mean because it’s the only weapon they have.
the landscape of femininity today has shifted to camera-ready makeup at the age of 10, stringent performative hygiene standards, and avoiding being caught on film while having a genuine emotion. the consumerism, the fatphobia, the racism, the classism, the homophobia remain. We could have had a conversation about that.
this is targeted tumblr content
This is what language is for. Evolution. Ridiculous, wonderful evolution.
This is so good, I’m awake at 3am and glad of it - for this has arrived on my dash like a boss
the “tried to make him the main character” part killed me bc, indeed, caesar is not the main character of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
I think like right out of the gate like I’m super confident. But I’m also like an idiot. Which is just… I mean it’s a brutal combination.
zespół 1670 był niczym pichcący walter white próbując stworzyć najbardziej respectful, uroczego, miłego, pomocnego, romantycznego, inteligentnego mężczyznę for the viewer to fall in love with, ale fandom postanowił simpować do girlypop księdza z grzywką ciętą od garnka
i had to share this gold with tumblr if it hasn’t been done yet, this is translation:
and this is the original:
i don’t know the author i found it on Instagram where it was probably already stolen
i need “Happier than a necromancer in a natural history museum” to become a known phrase immediately
@the-tao-of-fandom: #sir if you touch the fossils exhibit i will personally kill you
“I have a beautiful and alluring partner.”
Sherlock Holmes: “We solve mysteries and fight crime.”
Harold Finch: “We solve mysteries and stop crimes before they start.”
Sherlock Holmes: “We use deductive logic.”
Harold Finch: “We use cutting-edge technology.”
Sherlock Holmes: “I have a beautiful and alluring partner.”
Harold Finch: “…So do I.”
John Reese: *looks startled*
Everybody: *stares at Harold*
Joan Watson: “Awkward.”
Elementary/Person of Interest promo for WGN America’s fall 2015 “Prime Crime” lineup.
These are amazing — and shockingly accurate. Did you know there’s a “Bechdel test” for female scientist biographies?
Follow @the-future-now