Cottagecore as an aesthetic is fine the same way 1950s vintage as an aesthetic is fine. Cottagecore does find its origins in white supremacy and colonization — but you’re not a bad person because you find images of farm animals and nature beautiful or calming. It’s okay to daydream about a simple life.
But acknowledge the neo-Nazis and tradfems in your community. Don’t actually aspire to live in a cottage on stolen indigenous land. Go bake a pie instead. Your Pinterest board doesn’t hurt anyone, but allowing white supremacy in your community does.
Be critical of how you consume Hamilton. If you’re making edits, drawing art or are reading fanfiction of slave owners, you’re contributing to historical revisionism. The glamourization of the Hamilton “characters” is still racist apologism, I don’t care if you put them in a Miku binder!!!!
I don’t know how to tell terfs this but there is no universal “”~female~”” experience. My experiences as a woman of color are different from white women. My experiences as a woc in California are different from those of woc in conservative states, and especially in other countries and cultures, etc. Trans women’s experiences absolutely fit into womanhood, because there’s no one image of womanhood. Womanhood is a vast umbrella of experiences, and that fact should be celebrated.
i’m pretty sure lana used the singers at the beginning as a way to contrast herself from them because she’s “more delicate”? (which idk what that means) but yeah i’m pretty sure she wasn’t calling them the delicate ones
Yeah, I agree with you! Sorry if I phrased my post in a confusing way. I think that was her intention. However, she’s really not that different from those artists (she also sings about sex, cheating, drugs, etc) so I don’t know why she considers those topics “delicate” when she, a white woman, is singing about them.
lana del rey said she wants a space in feminism for “delicate” women who “don’t look strong.” her example of non-delicate women? beyonce, nicki minaj, doja cat, camilla. woc. she profits off of appropriating the aesthetic of woc while perpetuating a racist stereotype. we all know what “delicate” means.
Another thing about Del Rey’s racism, is anyone else ... put off by her appropriation of Latina aesthetics? She loves to sing “he’s crazy y Cubano como yo” and “he likes his woman Spanish, dark, strong and proud” and have her stage name, Lana Del Rey, translate to “the king’s money” in Spanish slang but ... she’s not Cuban. She’s a WW. She’s using Latinx aesthetics to cultivate her persona of being an “exotic flower.” Gross.
the thing is that ldr does romanticize abuse and pedophilia (see: put me in a movie, lolita, smartie, etc). it’s great to hold her accountable for her racism + white tears, but why are we ignoring the original critic?
“Percy Jackson” Has A Problem With It’s Disturbing Portrayal of Abuse
So … in light of the recent Disney Plus adaptation, let’s talk about my favorite childhood book series and how awful (certain parts are) in retrospection.
CW: domestic abuse, brief mentions of alcoholism
Percy Jackson is first and formally introduced as a victim of bullying and abuse. His mother’s boyfriend is a violent drunk who uses intimidation, physical abuse and verbal abuse to keep them in check. Percy has been bullied all his life because of his ADHD and his status as a “troubled kid” who switches schools every year. And yet, despite the abuse he’s endured, Percy Jackson stays sane. He’s a kind boy with a good sense of humor, optimism and empathy for the people around him. His best trait is his resilience, which is shown over and over again. While Percy Jackson represents resilience in the face of darkness, Annabeth Chase is the result of what happens when it breaks you. She’s afraid of getting hurt by the people around her so she builds walls of petty bullying to keep them out. She lets the past consume her, she’s utterly obsessed with it. It’s reflected in her feelings towards Luke. This is the core of why Percy and Annabeth’s relationship is so toxic: she was never ready to be vulnerable with another person. And Annabeth is, in a way, the accumulation of every abuser Percy has ever met.
Mark of Athena, Page 15: “Annabeth didn’t mean to, but she surged forward. Percy rushed towards her at the same time. The crowd tensed. Some reached for swords that weren’t there. Percy threw her arms around her. They kissed, and for a moment, nothing else mattered. An asteroid could have hit the planet and wiped out all life, and Annabeth wouldn’t have cared. Percy smelled of ocean air. His lips were salty.
Seaweed Brain, she thought giddily.
Percy pulled away and studied her face. “Gods, I never thought—“
Annabeth grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder. He slammed into the stone pavement. Romans cried out. Some surged forward but Reyna shouted, “Hold! Stand down!”
Annabeth put her knee on Percy’s chest. She pushed her forearm against his throat.”
Annabeth is violent. Her abuse of Percy is consistently romanticized throughout the series. The Percabeth dynamic boils down to “that child pulled on your hair because they like you,” and that doesn’t become romantic just because it’s a girl who’s doing the pulling; it’s almost more dangerous. It reinforces the harmful belief that men cannot be abused by women. And yet, the ship remains popular. Annabeth calls him “seaweed brain” a nickname meant to insult his intelligence, which as a child with a learning disability, is something Percy would be sensitive about. Their interactions largely consist of Annabeth verbally abusing him, and Percy saying he loves her.
Here’s the thing. These books are about abuse. They’re about the gods being cruel and neglectful parents, they’re about sadistic high school bullies, they’re about abusive mortal parents as well. So I don’t know how Rick Riordan didn’t realize he made Annabeth Chase an abuser. Portraying this relationship as romantic is irresponsible. It is irresponsible to teach elementary schoolers, the primary audience of the series, that hitting your partner is romantic. Percabeth isn’t just a poorly executed love story; it’s a dangerous one.
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Disclaimer: I don’t believe Riordan intentionally wanted to romanticize violence. But, the fact that Annabeth never matured from The Titan’s Curse, where she punched Percy in the stomach, to The Mark of Athena is scary. She’s a teenager but I don’t think that should excuse her actions. I firmly believe this violence wouldn’t be tolerated if it was Percy punching Annabeth, so why does the fandom excuse it from Annabeth? Is it masked by the rose-tinted glasses from which they see their favorite childhood series? Or, is it a reflection of how we as a society view a woman hitting a man? And Rick Riordan, if you’re seeing this (which I doubt), reflect on what you have published. Maybe you’re okay with it, maybe you’re not. But as writers, we all have a responsibility to consider how our work influences our readers.
