[beardedmrbean]

[gunsandfireandshit]

[pondnaravit]

[iamtheconfusedman]

Her speech physically dropped me to my knees.

[victusinveritas]

[a-bold-move]

if theres a kitty cat waking up from a napand doing a big stretch but no ones around to go ooh big stretch wouldnt that be the saddest fucking thing?

[porcelain-dollbones]

before and after yep shes lo mein

[pjackk]

Dont be very woried about me since i deserve all of this

[boomer-mythology-destroyer]

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[dankxsinatra]

[roxylalonde]

[filmphotofranz]

[creature-wizard]

So many conspiracy theories about Christian holidays deriving from "stolen" pagan customs implicitly dismiss the possibility that the common people might have had agency and created their own folk customs.

[starridge]

who are your parasocial enemies, like mine are andrew lloyd webber and butch hartman

[my-sun-m00n-and-stars]

DARTH MAUL ESTROGEN BRIGADE???

[stepmuppet]

[nonlynear]

Let me put it this way : Hi

[louisegluckpdf]

i think every publisher should have to institute a ban on books that fail what i’m calling the “little life” and “what else?” tests

[louisegluckpdf]

for reference.