Lumos ϟ

Love. Writing. Reading. Harry Potter. Chocolate. Music. Pretty Things. Other Things**

[funnytwittertweets]

[meghansbest]

The Duke & Duchess of Sussex share a picture to announce the Duchesses pregnancy of a second child.

[thesussexroyals]

Meghan: *exists* The British Media, Royal Watchers:

[kateandmeg-deactivated20210511]

I get why people feel like this- I really do. And I think it’s true- to a point.

But I would like to (very politely, very unaggressively) comment briefly on the phrase “British media”. I think it’s important we distinguish between the British tabloid press and the British media more generally. (I’ve based this on another post I’ve commented on, so apologies if you’re reading this again!)

It’s difficult to explain to people who haven’t experienced every day for their entire lives, but the British media system really isn’t a homozygous entity that can be bunched together.

The vast majority of our major media outlets (such as the BBC, ITV, Sky and the Broadsheets) really don’t care that much about the Royal Family- in the same way most people living here don’t care about them either. They only write about the important events- births, weddings, tours etc. One could make the argument that there is inherent racism within the media system, as in a lot of countries, but the mainstream outlets have very much stuck to the facts as far as Meghan is concerned. 

Unfortunately, the rest of the world is seeing the very unrepresentative tabloid press, and assumes all our media is like that. The tabloid press (we’re talking the Mail, Mirror etc.) are a very different kettle of fish to the main media outlets. They can be intrusive and racist, they have been since they first arrived on the scene decades ago. It’s the unfortunate side effect of having a free press- one I would get rid of at the first opportunity if I could. However, the British population on the whole knows they are less trustworthy and doesn’t read them for their factual value. They do serve a purpose, but I won’t go into that here.

It’s really important we make that distinction because it’s really important that people recognise that British media as a general rule can be trusted to be reasonable. I would ask people who read this not to judge our entire media system by a minority of outlets.

[thesussexroyals]

With all due respect @gloriousglorianas​, I actually have lived in the UK so I do rather have a pretty clear view of the press and its deeply racist coverage and malice toward Meghan and any POC who steps out of “line” for them. 

And it is the vast majority of the press. I didn’t stutter. Of the major 10 dailies in the UK, 6 are tabloids. Those tabloids are the most read papers in the UK. Your tabloids dominate political and social life in a way they do not in almost any other news-market. You would never see the likes of TMZ or NY Post in a political briefing, and yet top political figures in the UK take questions from and do interviews with the likes of Dan Wootfuck. 

Off the top of my head:

Your major press includes the BBC which ran a ‘satire’ spin of the royal family with Meghan as a dark skin Sapphire caricature that was threatening Kate with a knife.

Jonny Dymond, the BBC Royal Reporter, has said some pretty terrible things about Harry and snide things about Meghan on Twitter. 

A BBC radio host was fired (but then rehired because white men never actually face consequences) for comparing Archie, who was a DAY OLD to a chimp. 

But it’s not even Meghan only. Let’s take another of the many examples I can cite. When a Black BBC journalist discussed a racist comment made by then President Trump, which called out the racism in the comment, she faced disciplinary action that was only rolled back after other Black journalists and figures in Britain called it out.,  

ITV’s morning news program is spearheaded by Piers Morgan who makes it his mission everyday to belittle, abuse, and harass Meghan. 

The Times is a Murdoch owned, right leaning paper that has consistently ran smearing pieces on Meghan. Times columnist, Camilla Long, writes some of the most openly racist bile I have ever read in a “prestige paper.” Many of Roya and Valentine’s “scoops” are glorified gossip ALL with a massive anti-Meghan slant. 

The TELEGRAPH posted and boosted an article where Camilla Tominey literally COUNTED the number of white women on Meghan’s Vogue cover and derided the whole issue for having too few white people. The Telegraph ALSO posted an article from Camilla that accused Meghan and the Hubb ladies of supporting terrorism. Oh and let us not forget, it was also the Telegraph that started the whole “Meghan made Kate cry” story as well and published various pieces by Celia Walden, Piers’ deranged wife, that were often cruel, racist, and sexist. 

In general, I would agree with you that the prestige or legacy media generally does not focus on the royals. But that is what makes the abuse Meghan has endured different. She generates attention and smearing headlines even in papers that are either deferential or indifferent toward the royals. When it comes to Meghan, nearly all the media acts like tabloids. 

The majority of the media in the UK is right leaning. The hatred against minorities or immigrants, euroskepticism, deference to ideologies on class and empire is spewed on the pages of the broadsheets and go beyond the tabloids. 

But tabloid culture IS media culture in the UK. They drive the media landscape and the legacy papers scurry to keep up. Of course, there are exceptions. The Independent, The Guardian, etc pay scant attention to the royals and tend to give Meghan a sympathetic reading but that is a minority of the media coverage and NOT the controlling media either.

People love to deride the tabloids but even if someone doesn’t read the likes of the Sun, the tabloid’s reporting gets echoed in broadcast reports or on social media, and it slowly begins to set a dominant narrative even if people can’t trace that the original story came from the DM or EXPRESS. The media ecosystem in the UK is largely built to sustain an echo chamber to reinforce perceptions about the “other” which is generally POC/Foreigners. Meghan is a sterling example of this effect. I have never seen so much online conspiracy turned into media headlines with any other public figure. The US has the growing far right media to contend with that does this, but they are learning from the UK tabloid culture which has already been far down this road. 

British media may be reasonable when it comes to white folks, (idk about that), but when it comes to Meghan and other POC? Come on now, lets be real.

I know the UK media landscape *very* well. From both an inside the media and outside view. 

So let me say yet again, I did not stutter. The British media as a whole has treated Meghan horrifically and continue to do so because her very existence punctures the white supremacist power structure they are nearly *all* committed to upholding. 

[reasonandempathy]

How to Ditch Amazon

Support your local libraries and the small businesses that are actually making the products you want.  Fuck Jeff Bezos and the systemic, universal worker abuse, gaslighting, and brutality they live off of.

[whitepeopletwitter]

[birble-bobble]

Yeah so the Big Think is literally owned by big oil. They’re making shit up so people feel too exhausted to fight for any change. Ignore this kind of environmental nihilism, all it does it help the rich avoid change.

[midnight-spectrum-again]

The fuck

[astridfromthenorth-deactivated2]

[setyourphaserstostun]

[skytier]

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, I had a pokemon. Second, there was a part of me - and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be - that wanted to be the very best, like no one ever was. Third, Gary Oak was unconditionally and irrevocably a douchenozzle.

[craftynyx]

Reblogging for the comment

[ray-rabies-deactivated20150812]

How old are you? 

“ten”

How long have you been ten?

“…”

[ayyponine]

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TEN

[im-the-doctor-basically-run]

Misty looked at Ash, his breathing still heavy from carrying her on his bike as fast as he could through the long grass outside of Pallet Town.

“You’re eyes are impossibly huge and black,” Misty said. “Your hair is… incredibly pointy, and doesn’t need product. Your face changes size and shape based on your feelings… and sometimes you speak like - like you’re from the 90’s. You never spend money on anything; you don’t go to the bathroom.”

The silence hung there, thick and heavy like a Snorlax blocking the bike path. 

“How old are you?” Misty asked, not sure if she wanted to know.

“Ten,” Ash replied, with a slight smirk and an almost amused tone.

Misty new that wasn’t true. Ash wasn’t like the other boys her age. He wasn’t even like her older sisters who ran the gym in Cerulean City. He was wiser and his passion was genuine.

Ash didn’t just want to catch them all, he needed to. He was going to be the best there ever was no matter how long it took, which gave Misty this nagging in the back of her mind. She had to know for sure.

“How long have you been ten?” she asked. Her voice weak, knowing full well the answer could change everything she thought she knew.

“A while…” Ash said. His voice trailing off, as if he were losing himself in a flood of memories.

Misty let out a faint gasp. She knew now. She was certain.

“I know what you are,” she declared, as if whatever had been holding her back from accepting the truth, finally let go of her hand and let her fall right down the Diglett hole.

Ash eyes were alive now, flickering like the flame on a Charmander’s tale.

He stared right into her and said, ”Say it… out loud. Say it.”

Misty’s heart was pounding louder than the thud of a Marowak’s bone club attack.

Despite the now eerily silent meadow, she could barely be heard as she whispered, “Pokemon Trainer.”

[heiress-to-the-industries]

I AM SO DONE WITH YOU PEOPLE

[sweet61]

Let's see what the "intelligent looking Kikyou" did, shall we?

And This. This really is the main issue with Kikyou throughout the manga. And I'm surprised to find it cropping up this early.

Kikyou is a nothing character. RT enjoyed drawing her but obviously hated actually writing her. May be, just like Kikyou, she was too lazy to actually add some "show" to the "tell". Actual intelligence does not matter. "Looking" ~intelligent~ does.

And if we're going by "show" rather than"tell" , Kagome shows more intelligence in this chapter than Kikyou shows in the entire manga.

So we see Kikyou and we are supposed to judge her through the words RT puts in other characters' mouth. RT takes this to insiduous extents later in the manga (where she pulls "noble" motivations for Kikyou to pawn off the jewel literally out of her ass) through Inuyasha and especially Kagome's dialogues.

The characters' obsession with Kikyou based on nothing but her physical beauty is going to be mirrored by RT who will "redeem" Kikyou's black deeds later on in the manga simply because she has physical beauty . This manga has a very shallow message. And RT's bad writing of Kikyou and the shallow obsession with "appearance" plays into that.

Kikyou has the "appearance" of loving children (in actuality she does not know or care that her actions led to the deaths and orphaning of thousands of children and RT is never going to bring it up again. )

It's very telling that what we hear of Kikyou here at the beggining of the manga and later in the manga is practically the same. The characters are never allowed to see Kikyou's real personality or even her real actions (like the stupidity of her giving Naraku a new body when it was unecessary, or the,stupidity of her telling Naraku exactly why he can't kill her and thus showing him onigumo's heart needed to be removed).

Thus she is never really brought down from the pedestal of fake statements and asspulls built for her by RT and seen and judged for the person she actually is. Because to RT, the "appearance" matters more than the reality.

[catsbeaversandducks]

[sixthrock]

Wait is this the same cat from that “my cat always looks like she just found out her husband died at sea” tweet??

IT IS

[leave-me-colourless]

[guideaus]

[62442magic]

Appa is too cute

[royal-confessions]

“I think I’d be cute if princess Charlotte and prince louis both marry into another royal family, one day. :)” - Submitted by Anonymous

[62442magic]

Personally, I want Charlotte to grow up and be something kickass, like a scientist or a prosecutor. Or an evil genius. 

[62442magic]

The Letter for the King was bad, full stop.

The bones of the show were good and the location and production value amazing. Other than that...it was bad.

Bad acting (with only a few exceptions).

Plot was badly explained and developed.

The characters were badly explained and developed.

The characters motivations were not explained clearly.

WTF was happening other than a letter was being delivered to the King?

The world was not explored.

The magic was not explored.

A mess.

[thestarswerealigned]

November 7, 2019 | The Duchess of Sussex attends the 91st Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey

[62442magic]

She is so pretty.

[jonathantaylorthomas]

Mood

[ahumanbeena]

Did you know that after they switched to blind auditions, major symphony orchestras hired women between 30% to 55% more? Before bringing in “blind auditions” with a screen to conceal the the candidate, women in the top 5 major orchestras made up less than 5% of the musicians performing.

[shwetanarayan-deactivated202504]

so I believe it was actually more complicated than that, in interesting ways. Because at first, when they did blind auditions, they were STILL hiring more men.

…Then they put down a carpet, so that high heels didn’t clack on the floor,  and BOOM women were suddenly getting hired.

The testers didn’t even know that’s what they were picking up on, which just goes to show how tiny of a cue it takes for misogyny to kick in.

[isaacsapphire]

The case of blind auditions for orchestras and how it dramatically changed the gender makeup of orchestras is a very illuminating example of gender bias, and an interesting possible way of countering it.

[nerdlingwrites]

I have a very strange relationship with cereal. I’ll forget it exists for months at a time, then I remember that not only does it exist, it is one of humanity’s perfect foods. Then I’ll eat like 4 boxes in one day before some eldritch god takes the knowledge from me again. (Probably for my own good.)

[ratingboomercomics]

This is incredibly sweet and genuinely made me smile. I was expecting to get upset, but no….. this is a 10/10 comic

[ruyeka]

Zits is a pretty good series of comics. It’s the usual “lol teenagers” and the “lol adults” jabs, but it’s not just “teens and adults don’t get each other. You have this comic and this one too