Shadowbox

What a mess.

[bodhimcbodeface]

I need a Thank u Mr Terry tag

[spiffybug]

#thank you mr terry#thinking something isn't doing it and doing is all people see#and deep down it means that when the ugly thought reared its head to be realized#you stood up in front of that ugly hurtful thought and said 'sit down'

Pardon me, but I needed to read your tags tonight.

[tambzietap]

israel ‘fuckin’ hands edit // aka a compilation of izzy hands being izzy hands 

 aqui yo mando (kali uchis + rico nasty) bc this is the energy izzy wants but is failing miserably at

[beckettmariner-deactivated20200]

You ever invite your coworker to watch you give birth just to spite a racist

[linguisticparadox]

Okay howmst the fuck has a ship doctor in the far future never handled a birth without the father present? Are sperm donors and gay couples and trans women no longer a thing in the bajillionth century CE?? :/

[thatoldantique]

I while understand the frustration with erasure sometimes it helps to look at things through the cultural context of when something was made. Star Trek the Next Generation was made in 1987, this particular episode I believe aired in 1988 a time when a future where the husband was always present for the birth would have been amazing to many of the people watching the show as men had only been allowed to be present for the birth of their children for 10/15ish years at that point in the US.

Women (and many men) fought for decades with hospitals to even have men allowed in the delivery room during the early stages of labor, which can last for several hours, and hospitals only began to give in to their requests in the 1960s but even then they would be kicked out of the room by hospital staff before the actual birth took place. So many of the couples watching the show would have had to go through labor without having/being allowed to support their spouse regardless of their wishes. Having the child’s father present for the birth only began to happen in the 1970s and 1980s. Which means most people watching this show either went through birth without the support of their spouse, were not allowed to support their spouse during the birth of their child, or their own mother’s went through that during their birth.

A future where the husbands were always present for the birth was still a little crazy to consider in the late 1980s. A good kind of crazy for the people living in that time, it showed a future where the wishes of the couple were finally consistently listened to by medical professionals as a result of the actions of people during their or their parent’s lifetimes. And it does that by also subverting it in allowing Data to step into the role of the father when the father was unknown and/or unwilling/unable to fill that role (I’ll be honest my knowledge of Next Gen is a bit spotty and I have not seen this whole episode, just a piece of it at family Thanksgiving). The woman’s desires as to how she would give birth are listened to and respected, something that still doesn’t happen in many hospitals now and would have been seen as even more revolutionary then. So while it isn’t perfect I think this scene was actually fairly impressive for its time and cultural context and shows a future that many people of that time would have seen as ideal.

[cannon-fannon]

I think this kind of contextual understanding and analysis is really important because things that look antiquated now were revolutionary then. I remember reading that the mini skirts in Star Trek TOS were legot just in fashion (about 64’ ish), one of the actresses (the one that played Rand) requested they be in the show and both her and Nichelle Nichols said they didn’t see them as demeaning but liberating in that time and context. Where as NOW it looks like ‘sexy male gaze’ but then it wasn’t.

[elfwreck]

Miniskirts are comfortable and easy to move in - unlike longer bulkier skirts, which had previously been required for “modesty.” And unlike the approach of “we’ll just put them in pants,” miniskirts made a statement that women crew-members weren’t being treated like men. Miniskirts were a way to say “I can be an attractive woman, wear comfortable clothes, and still look professional and do a serious job.” 

The clothing for that message today would be different. 

[prismatic-bell]

This is also why the bridge crew of TOS may seem “tokenistic” today. When it came out, the Cold War was in full swing and “Soviets” were maligned and hated, Black people could not count on their right to vote being honored, and mixed-race people (like Spock) were called horrible things like “half-breed” and “zebra.” A white man was in charge of the ship, but Gene Roddenberry was fully aware that a chunk of the viewership read him as queer, and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DISCOURAGE THAT READING, at a time when “homosexual activity” was illegal in the United States!

By today’s standards, “one of everything? How tokenistic.” In 1966? “A Black woman, a Russian, a man from multiple cultures, and a man who loves differently, all top of their fields, all working together and finding common ground to learn, grow, and help where they can? What a wonderful future!”

[charismat1c-megafauna]

Also I’m sorry but like. A show also featuring a Japanese man who isn’t a stereotype but part of the crew, having a Scottish character be a part of the central cast (idk if I need to get into why this is important, but considering how England has continuously tried to erase Scottish culture and identity, and the stereotype of Scots as bumbling bumpkins, etc, its kind of nice to see a Scotsman who’s the best of the best at his job).

Moreover, a lot of kids watched this show. MLK himself contacted Nichelle Nichols and asked her to stay on the show when she was considering leaving, because “you don’t have a Black role, you have an equal role,” and there wasnt many Black role models on tv. I can only imagine how Black kids, Asian kids, and mixed race or mixed culture kids felt seeing people like them on tv. Hell, seeing Uhura on screen is what inspired Whoopi Goldberg as a little girl.

Also, yeah, its easy to look back and say ‘damn, fathers weren’t there in the delivery room? What assholes’ but no like they legitimately were not allowed in there.

[gayahithwen]

Tiny correction: while George Takei is Japanese, and while Sulu thus looks like what we in the 20th-21st century consider to be an ethnically Japanese man, Hikaru Sulu was Pan-Asian by design. His last name is not Japanese. And Roddenberry designed him like that intentionally, because while there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment in the US at the time (I mean, hell… George Takei himself spent years in Japanese internment camps during WW2), there was also a lot of other anti-Asian sentiments, and Roddenberry intentionally put ALL of it on the character of Sulu.

Like, all the years of anti-Chinese racism in the US? Sulu. Anti-Japanese sentiments left over after WW2? Sulu. Korean War in 1950-52? Sulu. The Vietnam War, with Johnson in 1965 (a year before TOS started airing) choosing to start sending American troops into the conflict? Sulu.

Sulu was Roddenberry’s desperate attempt to show all Asian people as inherently worthy, inherently human, and yeah, he probably put kind of too much on Sulu’s shoulders, but it was the 1960s and Roddenberry fucking cared about representation, so he did what he could.

Just, you know… a little bit more historical Star Trek context

[gholateg]

Also to hammer this home?

Scotty was third in line for the captain’s chair. The only non-Kirk who had the con more then him was Spock.

He was smart, he was a *ranked* crewmen, he was a gentleman, he wasn’t a skirt chaser, and he was capitol L loyal. The only time he got into a fight was when someone both went after his Captain, AND his Ship.

And he was Scottish. 

That’s so above and beyond the typical Scottish stereotype even TO THIS DAY.

[earhartsease]

Dr Polaski was coded as something of an arse just so they could make their valid points about equality and bigotry using her as a foil. Yes it was kind of clumsy from a modern perspective, but it was also kind of groundbreaking (not least because you didn’t usually get arses being played by women)

[wemblingfool]

Pulaski wasn’t a bigot. The point of her character is that she didn’t understand Data.

Data is not the first or only android in Star Trek. But he’s the first and only one with a positronic brain, which in trek garble makes him sentient. Other androids before him are relatively simple. They follow their programming and do what they’re told. Pulaski’s knowledge of androids comes from this. Pulaski is dealing with an iPhone 12, when all she’s ever known of phones is a rotary.

Any time she dealt with Data, she was curious, and interested. Anytime she was corrected, she “updated” herself. In Pen Pals, she was the only one who was in his corner. She was the one who was fighting to protect his feelings. By the end of her only season, Pulaski pretty much believed Data had emotions, even if he didn’t.

That was her character arc (and one that was cut short, because she was intended to be perminant)- someone from an older generation, coming from a place of ignorance, and growing as a person as they experience new people.

[wetwareproblem]

I’m not sure you can open with “she wasn’t a bigot” and then argue that her character arc was supposed to be about outgrowing the “product of her time” bigotry, though.

She was a bigot, full stop. She had been taught not to think of androids as people, so when one stood in front of her and said “I am a person,” she refused to acknowledge it. Repeatedly. She’s not dealing with an iPhone 12; that’s the problem. She’s dealing with a person whose grandaddy was an iPhone, and insisting that all they’re good for is placing other people’s phone calls.

This is a point that TNG tries to hit on repeatedly - remember “The Measure of a Man?” “The Quality of Life?” “Ship In A Bottle?” “Home Soil?” Star Trek shows us a utopia where racism is extinct - so when they want to tell a story about the systemic racism in our culture and the racist message we internalize, their default approach is to use synthetic life. It’s a clever play, too, because the audience is likely to agree with the implicit assumption that machines aren’t life - look at how casually you compared Data to an iPhone, even. Over and over again, it comes back to a central theme: Life that doesn’t look or sound like us, even life that we previously dismissed as property and tools, is still life and still worthy of respect and equality.

Pulaski’s characterization re: Data is a significant part of this theme. The way she repeatedly and casually talks about Data like he’s an appliance? Calling Black people “obsolete farm equipment” was a joke that I heard as a kid, when this was on the air. Or how about that one famous beat from her very first appearance?

Pulaski: Dah-ta, look at this. Data: [looking slightly confused] ‘Day-ta’. Pulaski: What? Data: My name. It is pronounced ‘Day-ta’. Pulaski: Oh? Data: You called me “Dah-ta”. Pulaski: [laughing] What’s the difference? Data: One is my name. The other is not.

How many people with ‘ethnic’ names do you think saw that scene and wished they could be that blunt about it? “One is my name. The other is not.” This is very deliberately putting an act of real-world bigotry in Pulaski’s mouth - and note that she doesn’t actually address his concern or apologize, just refocuses on what she had been talking about.

Pulaski was a bigot. Outgrowing it later doesn’t change that, and acting like it does just makes it harder to discuss that bigotry.

[petite-madame]

The Order of the Wakandan Tribes - (2021)

A follow up to The Order of The Avengers (available HERE and HERE). All the outfits are inspired by the ones of various African people (Maasai people, Zulu people, Himba people, etc..) but also by concept art from the book The Art of Black Panther.

[veliseraptor]

that ‘pakige?’ post but me, a couple hours after posting a fic, like ‘comints?’

[kitten-kin]

[leahazel]

F5 F5 F5

[kitten-kin]

… F5 F5 F5 F5F5F5F5F5

[lilyrose225writes]

i feel so called out

[deathtoskinnyjeans]

A Twitter Thread from David Bowles:

[Text transcript at the end of the screenshots]

I'll let you in on a secret. I have a doctorate in education, but the field’s basically just a 100 years old. We don’t really know what we’re doing. Our scholarly understanding of how learning happens is like astronomy 2000 years ago.

Most classroom practice is astrology.

Before the late 19th century, no human society had ever attempted to formally educate the entire populace. It was either aristocracy, meritocracy, or a blend. And always male.

We’re still smack-dab in the middle of the largest experiment on children ever done.

Most teachers perpetuate the “banking” model (Freire) used on them by their teachers, who likewise inherited it from theirs, etc.

Thus the elite “Lyceum” style of instruction continues even though it’s ineffectual with most kids.

What’s worse, the key strategies we’ve discovered, driven by cognitive science & child psychology, are quite regularly dismissed by pencil-pushing, test-driven administrators. Much like Trump ignores science, the majority of principals & superintendents I’ve known flout research.

Some definitions:

Banking model --> kids are like piggy banks: empty till you fill them with knowledge that you're the expert in.

Lyceum --> originally Aristotle's school, where the sons of land-owning citizens learned through lectures and research.

Things we (scholars) DO know:

-Homework doesn't really help, especially younger kids.

-Students don't learn a thing from testing. Most teachers don't either (it's supposed to help them tweak instruction, but that rarely happens).

-Spending too much time on weak subjects HURTS.

Do you want kids to learn? Here's something we've discovered: kids learn things that matter to them, either because the knowledge and skills are "cool," or because .... they give the kids tools to liberate themselves and their communities.

Maintaining the status quo? Nope.

Kids are acutely aware of injustice and by nature rebellious against the systems of authority that keep autonomy away from them.

If you're perpetuating those systems, teachers, you've already freaking lost.

They won't be learning much from you. Except what not to become. Sure, you can wear them down. That's what happened to most of you, isn't it? You saw the hideous flaw in the world and wanted to heal it. But year after numbing year, they made you learn their dogma by rote.

And now many of you are breaking the souls of children, too.

For what?

It's all smoke and mirrors. All the carefully crafted objectives, units and exams.

WE. DON'T. KNOW. HOW. PEOPLE. LEARN.

We barely understand the physical mechanisms behind MEMORY. But we DO know kids aren't empty piggy banks. They are BRIMMING with thought.

The last and most disgusting reality? The thing I hear in classroom after freaking classroom?

Education is all about capitalism.

"You need to learn these skills to get a good job." To be a good laborer. To help the wealthy generate more wealth, while you get scraps.

THAT is why modern education is a failure.

Its basic premise is monstrous.

"Why should I learn to read, Dr. Bowles?"

Because reading is magical. It makes life worth living. And being able to read, you can decode the strategies of your oppressors & stop them w/ their own words.

[lokitvsource]

“The show was always constructed to be a story on its own,” he said. “The story of Loki starting out as a villain and going through this adventure that turns him into a hero in his own way, doing the right thing, but losing anyway — that was always the complete story we wanted to tell.” “And we’ve got a Loki who, at the top of our show, assessed himself as a villain and, I would argue, at the end of our show, has become a little bit of a hero. There’s nothing more heroic to me than fighting for the right thing and losing. You see that washing over him as he’s there back at the TVA, after Sylvie has knocked back there. And then he gets up because that is what heroes do — they keep going. So I think that you’re gonna see a Loki that looks at himself in a different way certainly that at the top of this (in season 2).” - Michael Waldron

[themostineptthateverstepped]

I love that Mobius is an expert on Loki. He is essentially a scholar, the leading expert on the god of mischief. And instead of that manifesting itself in showy, obvious ways, we get these beautiful moments of stillness.

He simply listens and studies Loki's voice, his inflections, his choice of words, and he knows when he is honest or lying.

Which makes the Roxxcart scenes so much harder.

Because Mobius studied Loki's face, quietly taking him in, all of his microexpressions, intonations, ticks, and trusted him. Because Loki was telling the truth. He had no plans to run away during that mission, but he did what he believes he had to do when he followed Sylvie. You can see as much in his hesitancy and remorse when he stands at the timedoor watching Mobius run after him. He didn't want to betray him, but Mobius didn't know that. Mobius thought that he was taken in my his manipulations, and yeah. That hurt.

[hansoeii]

oh no! the god of mischief has fallen for the midgardian in a brown suit!

[sakura-haruka]

[aliceblakeart]

I watched Loki 💚

[niku30-deactivated20221106]

What if S2 Mobius looks like this…

Making this was a lot of fun omg

[bowiebond]

I have never been happier to fork over my money for art omg, look at this piece @haflacky made me 🥺🥺🥺 I’ve always loved the idea of Mobius with magic and they brought it to life for me, I’m so happy 🥺 please check out their other works guys! They have a patreon (with lots of Sambucky and Reddie works🥰) in their bio too!

[enstatia]

I knew I was going to draw this shot the moment I saw it. And that's when I finally came to love drawing fabric folds🤗

[beholdiing]

oh my god jesus mary and joseph in heaven i’m about to combust from all these photos

[lokihiddleston]

“You weren’t born to be king, Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death. That’s how it is, that’s how it was, that’s how it will be. All so that others can achieve their best versions of themselves.”

[enstatia]

As much as I appreciate Loki's glorious hair flips, life would be easier with a man bun😉