That Carrie post reminded me of my biggest and oldest pet peeve: adaptations taking a character who's supposed to be ugly, or at least not beautiful, and casting someone perfect-looking. A lot of the time this is simple misogyny, but the inability to allow ugly people to exist also extends to men and boys, and I remember how pissed I was when I started understanding this at around the age of eight.

Bastian of the Neverending Story is fat and weird-looking, in the movie he's a perfectly photogenic all-American kid.

Hermione is buck-toothed and unpretty, in the movies she's a perfect little girl who grows into a very attractive woman.

Carrie is fat and unpretty, in the movies she's a supermodel in slightly unflattering clothes.

Don't even talk to me about Ugly Betty.

The latest Frankenstein adaptation continues a long trend of trying to convey the message of "this monster is not inherently evil" by making the monster look good. Because obviously if the monster did look bad, it would be evil and people would be justified in shunning it.

Even supposedly more serious media does it. Imre Kertész's Holocaust novel Fateless has a minor character, a wimpy weird-looking member of the group of boys who got deported together. The other boys don't really like him, and disdainfully agree when he's deemed not fit for work - of course they don't yet know that it's a death sentence. In the atrocious movie he's not weaker just younger, a photogenic little boy, and him being sent to his death is played as a sentimental tearjerker for the audience instead of forcing us to grapple with the complexity of the original, where mundane teen boy cruelty continues to exist in boys who are currently victims of a genocide.

A written text says: this person is ugly, this affects how people treat them, this affects how they feel about themselves, how they behave, how they live in the world. This might just be an incidental part of their story, or it might be its entire point of the whole fucking book. And then the movie sweeps in and says: oh, but they aren't ugly! They have always been beautiful! They are being bullied and shunned for no reason! So unfair!

And the unintentional but very obvious implication arises that if they *were* ugly, of course they would deserve the bullying, the audience would agree that they deserve the bullying, the audience would want to join in, kick spit point laugh. The idea of empathizing with an actually ugly person doesn't compute. (Maybe it's clear by now that this has done low-grade but long-lasting damage to me as a person: weird ugly people are simply not allowed to exist, not even in stories about being weird and ugly.)

Btw this is why "everyone is beautiful" type body-positivity does nothing for me, and why I'm hyper-sensitive to how people discuss ugliness in reality and in fiction. For example, I love the Just King Things and the Shelved by Genre podcasts, but I think they struggle to see the value of written descriptions of ugliness. They interpret Steven King's descriptions of Carrie as cruel, they interpret Tiptree's description of P. Burke in The Girl who was Plugged In as cruel and fatphobic. Sure, I don't want to give King kudos for all his depictions of women, but he did get it right that time, and Tiptree absolutely did. Describing a character, especially a woman as ugly, genuinely ugly, no not secretly beautiful, actually ugly, and then telling her story, a story about existing in the world as an ugly woman, is really really fucking important. And people keep shying away from it, oh, it's cruel to call anyone ugly, let's pretend that ugly people don't exist instead.

sorry to jump in but a particular annoyance for me is that a lot of the time the people who cast these women will talk about originally wanting to cast someone unattractive, fatter, more true to character, but then [conventionally attractive actress du jour] walked in and blew everyone else out of the water with her talent like gee mr casting agent do you think there might be any underlying biases that make you view the pretty thin girl as more charismatic, more talented, more deserving of the role than anyone else? do you think? do you think at all???

Hello my friends, I'm writing to you again and I hope you are all well. As I struggle with my illness, I find in my brother Ali's face a reason to keep going. Today is his birthday, and due to my difficult health and financial situation, I am reaching out for your help to provide him with something simple some warm clothes and a birthday cake. Mending broken hearts is an act of worship, and I am full of hope in your love and support for me and my family during these blessed days." ❤️🙏🏻

Happy Birthday, Ali!

If you've got a little to spare, please do so, and share if you cannot!

Sometimes, asking for donations on Tumblr feels like shouting into the void, with nothing left but tagging people in the hope that someone will notice. The sense of despair grows with every ignored plea, like drowning while screaming with no one to hear. If you can help, please consider donating—every little bit makes a difference.

Despite the painful silence, we still believe that a small act can save a life. One donation or even one share can be the last hope in this darkness.

Have you guys noticed how much the internet/technology just does not listen to you anymore? I click “don’t show this artist” on Spotify and I get recommended a music video by them on the front page. I click “skip this update” on a pop up every time I open a file organization app and it’s right back there every time. I click unsubscribe on a newsletter and it keeps showing up in my inbox!! I click “delete my account” and the next time I open the website they suggest I “reactivate”.

Sadly, in Gaza even basic wound disinfectants are unaffordable—if they exist at all. Today, Qais’s wound became infected, swelling larger and angrier. I will not forgive anyone who scrolls past and keeps browsing without sharing my post.

His wound is worsening, infection is spreading, and surgery is urgent. I am a mother in Gaza with no medicine and no answers, watching time steal my child piece by piece. Please donate to save Qais.

I refuse to let my baby fade quietly while the world scrolls past. If you are reading this, you are part of his story now. Share, help, donate now—be the reason Qais gets another tomorrow.

Gofundme - Vetted#679

When Qais finally sleeps, I press my ear to his chest to make sure his heart is still fighting. No mother should fear silence like this. Please don’t let me lose him—donate now and save my child.

Donations are nearly nonexistent, and time is running out. I am begging on my knees as a mother—please don’t let emptiness be the reason Qais dies. Donate now and give my child a chance.

Yesterday, I watched Qais lose his strength hour by hour, his eyes dull with pain and hunger. I begged the night for mercy. Please don’t let yesterday repeat itself—donate now and save my child.

The sentences "Asexuals can still have sex" and "Aromantics can still date" need to go up on the high shelf for everyone except aces and aros talking about their own experiences. From now on, everyone else has to use the revolutionary new phrase "Asexuals and aromantics can do whatever the fuck they want forever."

Edit: Critical Thinking Questions

How many people have you lived with in your life (meaning, sharing place of residence, especially cooking areas, living areas, and/or bathrooms).

Group homes count, family counts, everyone in an apartment counts, not everyone in the entire apartment building counts.

statue extra

I made a similar post on another site but we are in a moment where the way Indigenous peoples of the Americas are invisibilized on the scale of the US national stage is extremely dangerous and actively contributing to genocide that, though always present, is currently ramping up its blatant violence.

Consider: the way Trump and other pro-invasion officials have not given ANY acknowledgment of the fact that Greenland is overwhelmingly inhabited by Indigenous Kalaallit people. The continuing--and in Minneapolis, intensifying--harassment and detention of American Indian tribal citizens and descendants, especially unhoused people. The fact that a not-insignificant number of the immigrants targeted by ICE are members of Indigenous communities in Abya Yala, with monolingual speakers of Indigenous languages at a particular disadvantage in navigating the system. And while we can acknowledge the complexity of mestizaje and the problematics of some people asserting ALL Latin Americans are Indigenous, it is undeniable that the phenotype most associated with "illegal immigrants" is that of Indigenous Americans and their descendants.

And yet, almost none of the mainstream discussion of these things mentions Indigeneity. The US has been SO consistent at erasing Native people not just within its borders but also beyond them that there is virtually no discussion of this aspect of the current crisis outside of Indigenous communities. I am still formulating my thoughts about this but I do think it is a potentially really important thing to pay attention to, particularly as we see things like Trump retaliating against the Miccosukee Tribe for trying to halt the Everglades concentration camp, and the intra-community backlash against tribes that are funding or investing in ICE facilities.

(Relatedly, I think the fact that Minneapolis has been at the center of much of this stuff lately is particularly notable due to the Twin Cities having a stronger-than-average coalition of Black, Native, and immigrant community members working together.)

idc about '&' and '/' in ao3 tags. I want a '?' for wildcard. they're in a relationship. i won't tell you what kind

"i want them to make each other worse" i want them to have an impact on each other that's hard to define as objectively good or bad but is still sure to change the trajectory of their lives and alter their very being on a fundamental level forever

this year i will draw pictures

badatit.com/careers

i am not well understood. which is also my fault

i dont let them research me

the greatest love story ever told in the most mid anime ever

I hope this isn't a controversial opinion, but I would rather have my tax dollars go to people fraudulently using SNAP benefits than have a single person go hungry. And I mean real fraud, not selling food stamps to buy tampons or any of that. I wouldn't care if half of the people receiving SNAP benefits didn't really need them if it meant everybody in the US had enough food to eat. It's food stamps. That's the exact kind of thing taxes are supposed to be for. Food isn't supposed to be a privilege or a luxury.

The ideal scenario, of course, would be that 100% of people do not require food assistance because food is necessary to live.