link for the fundraiser is down this is the new one

ALT

No, you should definitely keep calling it a kill switch. It helps describe my feelings on the matter.

I would also accept ai throttle. Not because I want to use levels of activity between fully on and fully off, but because I want to throttle the ai with my bare hands.

okay this makes me feel a lot better

Take notes @ all other companies

@transfagsculine​

#how do yall whitewash a white woman 

why would you leave this in the tags lmao

Allow me to explain:

Everyone dropping this pic

And talking about how the new frizz her is her niece, allow me to do a direct side by side instead

These are STILL not the same woman. Where is the icon fashion, the earrings (the chameleon, which might be in the new show idk I haven't watched it), the prominent hooked nose, the broader shoulders, the volume to her hair, the LIFE IN HER EYES

This frizzle looks like she's been called into the school board for inappropriate behavior and dress one too many times and has been broken.

Also others have said it before me but I couldn't find it in the scroll backs but they whitewashed all the kids too. They same face syndromed everyone to either be easier to draw or be more ambiguous so as not to offend or both or something, and it just makes me sad

Fuck it I did the digging cause I'm still mad

And that’s not even to mention what they did to the bus itself.

The old bus had a personality and life and fun and now it’s just… a bus.

HOW DO Y’ALL WHITEWASH A BUS?!

It's gives "anti abortion Jehova's Witness cartoon" now

Vector puppet animation and a shocking drop off in investment in kidvid is largely at fault, but international marketing is also to blame.

What's important to remember is that the whitewashy approach to character design in kidvid is a backslide.

Representation in cartoons had generally been on an upswing since the 1980s, even though efforts were often minimal, clumsy, or badly executed. Diversity helped sell action figures in the lucrative US/Canadian market and it was recognized as a prosocial value on the production side.

"Prosocial messages" are a major part of kidvid TV pitches and development, nearly every show has specific prosocial lessons the narrative themes are intended to work around, even if its an action-figure ad. These range from sincere expressions of the creator's intent (Gargoyles, OG Magic Schoolbus, OG He-Man (no, for real)) to the entertainment equivalent of carbon credits.

Slight aside. Actual ink-and-paint animation tended to lock characters down into more distinct tones because there were only so many standard paint colors. Which is why Kwame from Captain Planet, Roadblock from GI-Joe, and Tim from OG magic schoolbus all use essentially the same pantone.

Ralphie gets skinny because not only fatphobia, but I suspect because he would need slightly different rigging and would add just a teensy bit to the budget adjusting his animations when they could just copy-paste from one of the other identically built kids. If they need to put them all in spacesuits or diving suits or whatever, they just make the one body and slap the heads on, eazy-pezy.

Decals on the schoolbus mean they have to be tracked, they have to use different versions of the bus in flipped shots, same with Mrs. Frizzle's clothing patterns. Wouldn't want to spend time flipping Ralphie's "R' around.

And with the marketing for everything now being global, there's an impulse to average everything down to appeal to all markets to a general degree. Making stories oversimple makes them easy to translate. Humor varies culture to culture, keep it slapstick or quick quips that can be localized easily. Everything that makes the Chinese censor boards happy also makes US reactionaries less likely to kick up a protest, the incentive is to keep everything:

ALSO: These characters have the same face. They probably use the same eye and mouth parts for character animations.

It's all to do it as cheap and broadly appealing as possible, as determined by business weirdos who know nothing about art and care nothing about kids, and they're more than willing to leverage racism (or just ignore that its happening) for the promise of a tenth of a percent more profit.

And what's galling is that this kind of animation software doesn't have to make crap. It can be used to make amazing stuff and still be vastly cheaper than traditional hand-drawn, but the same quality at 60% of the cost is never going to beat 1/2 the quality at 5% of the cost for the money-men.

The path of least resistance rolls over a lot of people.

Reblogging for "the path of least resistance rolls over a lot of people"

All of this, but I want to highlight @therobotmonster's point extra hard because I see people watch media from the 90s and get confused on the difference they see now. There was a massive, intentional push to diversify children's media to connect to specific communities that has been watered down in order to sell to an international market. Chasing after more money has robbed us of richer storytelling, and you can see it in not just children's media, but in what movies Hollywood decides to make.

And yet, when art is able to speak to and about those communities, it's very successful. Kamala Khan has been a breakout star of Marvel comics because of her Pakistani-American background, her connection to her community, and being a Muslim American. Sinners was one of the best movies of last year. Most of the best graphic novels I read last year (Big Jim and The White Boy, Hello Sunshine) were about specific challenges faced by specific communities and how to navigate them.

When you're creating art, an essential question you should ask is "who needs this the most" instead of how to make it appealing to the most people. If it is genuine, the audience will be there.

Like I just know terfs are going to be parroting it pretending it wasn't said by a black trans woman about herself & her life.

here’s to all the things you survived loudly, to the dead horses you beat to death, to the shit that makes you scream

the last two campaigns - for mahmoud and maysara respectively - are both especially low on funds, neither has reached $1,000 yet

Alright folks! If you've ever wanted to donate to me, let's get some of these folks some help! Afro Palestinians go unheard even in the midst of an entire community suffering alongside them. I want to make sure they get some vision, too!

MANDATORY WATCH!

#v interested in what a 'conscious examination of gender roles' written asoiaf would be different#i understand generally but would love an elaboration

Well I didn't word it super precisely (that's on me for being on tumblr while I work) (@ my employer: this is an exaggeration. I am Locked In all the time) but basically what I meant is that I don't think his angle comes from being well versed in feminist literary theory or anything, he is "just" very good at getting into the head of his characters and empathize with their plight even when they are not straight able bodied adult males (which, as someone else said in the notes to this post, it's really an indictment on the many other straight male authors who don't even attempt to empathize with women and keep a firm outside look on them).

I do think he did reflect on tropes, inclusing gendered ones - the way Brienne dismantles both the "warrior girl but she is waifish and hot" and the "ugly girl is secretly beautiful and can be fixed with a makeover" stereotypes is very intentional, for example. But I think this is more about him being genre aware, and coming from an angle of "but what would a REAL person and not a stock fantasy character do in this situation" rather than a direct examination of like, the patriarchy specifically. Though he does end up commenting on the patriarchy anyway because he's interested in the power structures your average medieval fantasy story is based on.

However, his main framework, imo, is always an examination of the fantasy genre first and foremost; and while it often results in vibrant, realistic female characters whose arcs lends themselves well to a feminist reading, I don't think he set out to put a specifically feminist lens on his story. Which is why you still get the occasional whiplash-inducing male gazey moments and the sincere romanticization of some unequal/abusive relationships like Dany/Drogo and, potentially, Rhaegar/Lyanna (I'm keeping it in the hypothetical because we have no definitive version of it; but I highly doubt he is going to take the "she was groomed" standpoint part of the fandom is hoping for). It's not as bad as the orientalism which truly goes 99% unexamined, but it's there.

#I think I’ve always felt this particularly wrt loras/joncon/renly etc etc #bc it’s like damn man actually wrote pretty respectful representation of gay men in his fantasy series in like. the 90s/2000s #but at the same time he never truly examines what it is to be gay in his world #bc I think honestly when he said ‘I’ve noticed there are gay people in the world’ #that was an extremely literal statement 😭 #like I don’t think he avoids social commentary but agree w bidonica that first and foremost he’s in conversation w the genre and tropes (via @melrosing)

i don't care if you wanna fuck fat people or hairy people or trans people or the elderly or disabled people or whatever. can you treat them like human beings