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@mamoru22
The Moment he decides to give in there ist just the hint of a smile…
And the damn movement of his thumb here…
Putting this up for archival purposes I suppose 😜
Bonus:
Check out our handprinted “Team Originals” Shirt. For all of you who love the Mikaelson Family! The Shirts come in slimfit Unisex and have a very limited Stock, so go go go to our etsy shop.
nakedsasquatch it’s ya man
Okay but seriously folks - as often as I joke about this movie stirs my loins and as weirdly popular as this text post got a while back, I wanna rap with you all about why the George of the Jungle remake is a pretty important piece of cinema.
It’s literally the only movie I can think of that is based completely around the unheard of “FEMALE gaze.” Granted, while I’m a huge movie buff I’ve not seen every movie ever made. But even so, even if there’s another example of the “female gaze” in cinema that has escaped me it’s still damn impressive that a kids movie from 1997 based on a Jay Ward cartoon from the 60’s managed to turn gender representation in media on it’s fucking ass!
First things first, let’s look at our leading lady and love interest - Ursula, played by Leslie Mann.
Let me just say that while Leslie Mann is adorable and a talented actress, she does look a little less conventional and a little more plain compared to the bombshells that Hollywood likes to churn out. Leslie, in comparison, looks much more like a real women you’d meet on the street. She dresses pretty conservatively and plain throughout the film ; Wearing outfits that are more functional than fashionable for trekking through the jungle, pulling her hair back and so forth. Not that if she was dolled up and more scantily clad it would give her character any less integrity, but can we appreciate how RARE that is in the male dominated industry of film? Just think about all the roads a film about a woman in the jungle COULD have taken but didn’t - no scenes with her clothes strategically ripped or anything! You can say this is a kids movie, intended for children and that’s why the sensuality of the female lead is so downplayed but there are PLENTY of kids movies that handle women in a very objectifying and sexualized manner despite the target audience is pre-pubescent. Like, a disgusting amount. So I don’t think “it’s a kids movie” is why the film doesn’t take ANY, let alone EVERY, opportunity to showcase the main female character’s sex appeal…
…especially considering the sex appeal of the film rests squarely on the well defined shoulders of our male lead, George of the Jungle played by Brendan Fraser in the best god damn shape of his life!
*Homer Simpson Drooling Noises*
Whenever members of the reddit community try to compare the sexualization of women in fiction to the design of characters such as Batman and Superman, I always want to just sit them down and show them this movie. Because THIS is what the female sexual fantasy looks like, and Batman and Superman are male power-fantasies. Look at him - his big blue eyes, his soft hair, his lean, chiseled physique built for dexterity rather than power. He’s wild and free, but gentle. It’s like he fell right out of that steamy romance novel your mom tried to hide from you growing up.
Hell, the whole plot seems to be designed around how damn hot he is! First, for the majority of the film, he wears only a small strip of cloth to cover the dick balls and ass. Everything else is FAIR GAME to drool over for 40 minutes. Then, after he meets Ursula she takes him with her to San Francisco just so we can enjoy him in a well-tailored suit (as seen in the gif set), running around in an open and billowy shirt along side horses while Ursula and all of her friends literally crowd around and make sexual comments about him, and my personal favorite, ditch the loincloth entirely and have him walk around naked while covering his man-bits with various objects while one of Ursula’s very lucky friends oogles him and makes a joke along the lines of “So THAT’S why they call him the ‘KING of the Jungle’…”
And yes, it’s also a very cute and funny little movie. Out of all the movies based on Jay Ward cartoons, it was the most faithful to the fast-paced humor and wit of the original source material (yes even the new Peabody and Sherman movie which honestly I thought was too cutesy-poo.) But that’s not why this movie is popular with the gay community or why we all became women in 1997. It’s just really cool that there’s a film out there where the sensuality of the female form takes a back seat for the oiled up, chiseled, physique of Brendan Fraser (in his prime that is)
One thing to add: in the scene mentioned above where the ladies are watching him in the billowy shirt running with the horses, it pans back to about 50 feet away to two guys in suits at this party looking at the women and one of the guys says, “Man, what is it with women and horses?” So not only does this movie highlight the female gaze, but it blatantly points out that western male sensibilities don’t have a clue what actually appeals to women.
ALSO
he’s non threatening
as mentioned above, he looks built for dexterity rather than power, but he’s still a 6+ foot tall extremely muscular man, and not once are you worried for Ursula when he’s with her
ALSO
let’s take a look at his rival - Lyle is a cravat-wearing trust-fund kid (who, interestingly, is into Ursula’s fortune more than her, which kind of makes this a gender-swapped gold-digger thing too). He’s blonde and Ursula’s mom LOVES him. He’s more uncomfortable and less prepared to cope with the jungle than Ursula is, in his pastels and shiny shoes.
But he talks over Ursula, insists he knows what’s best for her, ignores her autonomy. In spite of the fact that Lyle Van de Groot is a rich, educated, social climber who cares deeply about his clothing and appearances he is a point-by-point checklist of unhealthy masculinity in a way that beefy, inarticulate, uneducated George could never be. Ursula is off on her own doing her own thing and Lyle hires two FUCKING POACHERS to track her down in the middle of the jungle while she’s working (or on vacation? It’s never made clear because he interrupts her before she can explain why she went on the expedition). Lyle ignores the local guides, claiming his experience with a bridge in Maui means the bridge they’re on is safe - which leads to a significant injury for one of the guides. He then tells Ursula the guides are conspiring against him, trying to make himself and his poachers seem safe and the Africans who make up the rest of their party seem dangerous.
Check that body language! A post above points out that we’re never worried about Ursula when she’s around George. That’s because Lyle talks to her like this. Look at his aggressive lean! Look at him literally looking down at her! She’s tilted away from him in the least threatening position possible and he’s so aggressive about whatever point he’s making. When he finds her after he pushed her toward a damned lion he kisses her and she pushes him away. Want a textbook example of gaslighting? Here you go: she says “don’t get all smoochy with me! I remember what happened with that lion” and he responds “What are you talking about? I was fighting that lion the whole time - you were just so terrified you don’t remember.” Then he shoots George! And then he kidnaps Ursula and attempts to force her into marriage!
Now look at how George and Ursula interact (slightly NSFW):
Even though he’s a big strong dude and he thinks he’s doing what’s okay he lets her set the tone for their interactions. He accepts that he’s out of his wheelhouse and even if he doesn’t understand it he does what she says is culturally appropriate. He learns from her! He listens to her! Compare Lyle leaning into Ursula above to this image of George and Ursula talking:
He’s listening to her, all of his attention is on on her, but he’s totally nonthreatening. His torso is turned toward her but he’s not invading her space, his hands are clasped, he’s smiling, and she’s the one leaning into him. Look at that smile she has, look how happy she is to be listened to. Her posture in both images is vulnerable but in this one with George she’s vulnerable because she has chosen to share with him instead of because she feels threatened.
When George rescues Ursula from Lyle at the end of the film it isn’t a typical damsel situation - George doesn’t have a knock-down-drag-out fight with Lyle, he swings into a tree and offers Ursula a hand so she can reach up and save herself (and before he does it he acknowledges how much it’s going to hurt and *whimpers* and looks human and scared). And you’ve gotta remember that George rescues everybody. It’s not just Ursula - he also rescues a parasailer and gets shot rescuing Shep and Ape. He just likes helping, dammit!
AND this movie offers a perfect counter to the “nice guy” thing - Ursula starts engaged to a jerk who her mom thinks is a “nice guy” the moves on to actual nice man George who isn’t *just* nice - he’s also patient, listens to her, has his own skills and talents, is okay with being goofy, has his own social circle and isn’t totally dependent on Ursula, and looks amazing. Ursula doesn’t go with George just because he’s a *nice* guy who rescued her from an asshole, Ursula goes with George because he’s an interesting, fun person who is supportive of her different way of being an interesting, fun person. AND he’s emotionally available. Google image search George of the jungle and see how many smiles you can find, see how many open looks of confusion there are, see how much sadness you can see in George’s face. Now look for images of Lyle. His two expressions are a smirk and cartoonish fear. I know this is a cartoonish kid’s movie, but it is SO powerful that the hero shares his emotions while the villain masks every emotion but fear. Lyle doesn’t want to open up, he doesn’t want to be vulnerable, he wants CONTROL. George wants to learn, to protect people he cares about, to explore new places, to laugh when he’s happy and to be sad when he’s sad, and that he does that while being a broad-shouldered, physically powerful dude who is NOT totally self-involved is just…
Like, look, I didn’t sign on to tumblr dot com for George of the Jungle discourse, but I’m just now realizing that this movie may have done the most for destroying my conception of stoic masculinity and gender roles as a child.
Like
Damn.
2nd reblog because this is even better.
*Adele, Make You Feel My Love playing in background*
Can you hear that? What? It’s our song.
“You just shut your mouth for one minute. Let me say something, right? You are a disaster. You’re smug and you’re arrogant and cocky, you’ve got terrible taste in music and you dance worse than paddy and that’s saying something. But I’ve got nothing to figure out, okay?
I know you, I know exactly what I’m getting myself into. And you’ve tried so hard for me, for the people you love and not everybody sees that but I do.
You got me to talk about Gordon. Then you listened to me and you got me through the impossible.
Liv, Liv, my little sister, you found her. You found my little sister. You. And even though she drove you nuts and she reported you to the police, you took her in as if she was your own.
You saved my life. You got me out of that car in that water and you saved my life.
You planned this mental wedding. You built us a home and you got me out of prison early.
And then you told me the truth about Rebecca instead of trying to hide it.
And the you stepped up for your son and you fought for him and you loved him and you loved me. You loved me like nobody ever has before.
So, please, Robert… Will you… Will you just come home with me? And let me help you this time.”
I’ll seal the rift, but not because of you or the Shadowhunters. Because it’ll save lives. x
Ok….so I can’t deal. I remember now why I prefer my ships when they aren’t Canon. At least they never break up!
And really, are they just handwaving the Seelie Queen here? Like remember when we were all like: why Magnus? Why the Seelie Queen? And now he himself is like: oh yeah, I know she’s with Valentine now. But who cares.
At least I hope we will find out more.
Because right now I’m getting whiplash with these two. In 2x18 they were two people who loved and fundamentally respected each other seperated by circumstance. In 2x19 I don’t know what they were supposed to be and in 2x20 Magnus is so angry that Alec needs to explain to him that closing the rift to Edom is necessary to keep everyone (including the warlocks) safe in order to get him to help.
I get that Magnus is angry. I get that he is trying to build up walls against being hurt by Alec again. But dear Magnus: Can you forgive Alec for who he is? Do you still believe that Alec is fundamentally a good person who is trying his best or is he just part of the Clave to you? A cruel Shadowhunter who only ever cares for other Shadowhunters. Is he now only the face of your oppressors?
And how do they come back from that?
UGH. I honestly don’t know what the writers are doing here. Alec is trying hard to do what is right for everyone and to prevent a war from happening. He has apologized to Magnus for keeping information from him. He is clearly sorry and wants to try and fix things. And yet Magnus keep acting like a petty, sulky child who has no intention of ever forgiving Alec. I love Magnus but I don’t like the way he is being portrayed right now. I mean, I get that he’s hurting. I get that he feels betrayed. But him making deals with the Seelie Queen and using every chance he gets to treat Alec like he never cared about him at all? I don’t understand how the writers want to go from there to a place of reconciling them (regardless of whether they actually get back together in the season finale or later).
Also, I really REALLY hope there is more to Magnus seemingly siding with the Seelie Queen. That he’s really just playing her, or acting the way he is because she is holding something over his head. Cause otherwise how does a character who is supposed to be good come back from that?
And I’m just so sick of the season 2 concept for Malec which is basically “Alec makes a bad decision, Magnus sulks, Alec apologizes. Rinse and Repeat”. It is not good writing for a relationship when one person spends half the season apologizing to the other and is constantly being painted as “the bad guy”.
Right now, I just want to see Magnus admit for once that he acted wrong too, and see him apologize to Alec. Because as of now this relationship is so unbalanced, and that is something the writers really need to fix in season 3. And they really need to start treating Alec as something other than their punching bag.
I mean, I get where Magnus is coming from. I understand his disdain for the Clave and his fading faith in Alec because of what he understood as a betrayal. It just is frustrating that it feels as if the writers of the show keep flipping the script on his behaviour between episodes.
Telling the Story of how he would deal with the fact that Alec represents an Organisation that Magnus deeply mistrusts and has a bad history with and how the two of them deal with it is an interesting and valuable story to tell. But it feels very disjointed the way it was done.
And my heart goes out to Magnus and what he has been through but also to Alec who I think had no idea how much of a problem Magnus has with Alec being part of the Clave. Mostly because Magnus has never before clearly stated his problem. And even when he broke up with him never once mentioned that particular issue. On top of that, Alec himself hasn't really learned about how bad the Clave really is and has been until just a few weeks ago. And he has a lifetime of having learned that the Shadowhunters are the good guys, the ones who protect everyone from demons. And he has always honored that and believed himself to be one of the good guys.
And I guess that is where some of the 'petty' comments come from. It's not (at least for me) that Magnus is angry, but that he never really told Alec what has made him angry. So he never gave Alec the chance to really consider how he is complicit and what he can do to be better.
I’ll seal the rift, but not because of you or the Shadowhunters. Because it’ll save lives. x
Ok....so I can't deal. I remember now why I prefer my ships when they aren't Canon. At least they never break up!
And really, are they just handwaving the Seelie Queen here? Like remember when we were all like: why Magnus? Why the Seelie Queen? And now he himself is like: oh yeah, I know she's with Valentine now. But who cares.
At least I hope we will find out more.
Because right now I'm getting whiplash with these two. In 2x18 they were two people who loved and fundamentally respected each other seperated by circumstance. In 2x19 I don't know what they were supposed to be and in 2x20 Magnus is so angry that Alec needs to explain to him that closing the rift to Edom is necessary to keep everyone (including the warlocks) safe in order to get him to help.
I get that Magnus is angry. I get that he is trying to build up walls against being hurt by Alec again. But dear Magnus: Can you forgive Alec for who he is? Do you still believe that Alec is fundamentally a good person who is trying his best or is he just part of the Clave to you? A cruel Shadowhunter who only ever cares for other Shadowhunters. Is he now only the face of your oppressors?
And how do they come back from that?
@magalimoons
Yeah, I don't think he wants to start a war. I think both Magnus and Alec want to protect their people and the best way to do that is to work together. Which is why it was so weird to me that the Seelie Queen basically said:
1) We should not depend on the Clave for our safety and instead fight Valentine ourselves - Which is A++ thinking and makes a lot of sense
2) before we do that though, we should break the Accords to risk open war with the Clave. - Which is so shady?! Like what is this logic. How would that make sense?
And well yes, the Clave is a horrible Institution. Who have been really self important, careless, corrupt and clearly no friend to the downworlders. But man, this is the one moment in which they need to work together. Because at least they are not planning to commit genocide. Like we don't all need to get along, but can we all agree that we can work with the really shitty People until we have taken care of the homicidal maniac?! Maybe I'm just too much of a pragmatist here... :)
@huggy-bears
I saw your post before I think, and rereading it, I agree with a lot. Your first point (Magnus losing credibility with his People) is probably the one point I kinda forgot about when I was writing down my train of thought. I think it is a valid point. I just kinda forgot about it, because so far we have never actually seen Magnus interact with other warlocks in his position as High Warlock. Other than a short moment in Season 1. So the People questioning him were Raphael and Meliorn. And no other warlock at all. But yes, probably the biggest issue for Magnus.
Your second point I kind of differ. Alec willing to execute Valentine was actually against Clave orders so whatever it proves (I agree with Matt on this, that it just proves that the writing in this ep made little sense) it almost proves more that Alec is willing to defy Clave orders if he feels he needs to.
And while he did ask for Magnus's DNA he realized his mistake and changed his mind after understanding the problem (as I wrote, I think he did make a few bad calls concerning his blind loyalty to the Clave but he has shown to be willing to listen and change if needed).
And yes, the Soul Sword. Now I don't think he kept this secret to keep the Clave safe. I think he did it because he believes that it's essential for the survival of both the Downworlders and the Shadowhunters to work together in defeating Valentine. He believes in the Accords (always easy considering that they have mostly served the Shadowhunters) and he might be blind to the issues that the Downworlders have with the Accords but I do believe he never would have kept this from Magnus had he believed that the Downworlders were in immediate danger because of it.
And your third point I totally agree. I think he was understandably emotional and angry and disappointed. I just believe that his emotions were more of a driving force than he let on. The show kinda led us to believe that war between the Downworld and the Clave is inevitable. But they didn't give me enough reasons to believe that it is.
After all, the Clave has been a deeply corrupt and racist overlord since the beginning of the accords. Which doesn't change that Valentine only has one mission: the destruction of the entire Downworld. The Clave has only one Mission: their own well being. That makes both of them highly questionable allies but only one of them they need to fight right now. And maybe use the fact that the Clave might now need their help to get rid of Valentine use that to fuck them up by demanding better Accords!
Which OMG, really Long winded way to say: I think Magnus breaking up with Alec made sense. And I understand why he did it. I just don't quite know yet, if the show actually gave us enough plot points to show that there was any reason for Magnus to believe that Alec would not respect his wishes to make a choice for his People, or that Alec would blindly follow Clave orders that would result in Mass Casualties for the Downworlders. I think he takes is responsibility to protect Downworlders as well as Mundanes serious. He just is sometimes blind to how he should do that and falls back to learned and fucked up behaviour. But so far he has always been willing to listen. So if Magnus had been less emotionally devastated by Alec lying to him, I think he would have tried to talk to him. And considering that he is right now deciding on a course of action that might lead to war, maybe he still should.
Unless he truly does believe that Alec would willingly and consciously destroy the downworld and watch them die in order to protect the clave. In which case I don't really know how they could come back from that. I mean there is the trust that is broken when someone is lying to you. But the trust that you have in the other Person being a decent human being, once that is gone...
God, sorry for being so damn verbose about this. I find this whole Thing between the downworld and the Clave politically much too interesting for my own health. :)
Some Malec break-up Meta because...well, just because! This break-up was emotionally so true to who Magnus and Alec are which is why it hurt so good. But: It kinda made not much sense on a rational level?! Like why would Magnus think it was a good idea to start a war with the clave right now? I mean the clave is shady af and clearly don't have the downworlders survival and well being as top priority. But they also aren't really out to kill them. But they do happen to have a common enemy they both fear/hate. So deciding that now is the time to spread your resources and fight both the clave and Valentine seems like an odd choice. Considering that you can trust the clave in the sense that they are sanctimonious asshats but have no interest in killing or saving you but you have no idea why the seelies want to break the accords. It seems like a weird strategy to side with them. Like really, the accords exist for a reason. Because while the downworlders and clave don't really have any respect or love for each other they are also not natural enemies. On the Malec relationship level: does Magnus really think that Alec would not be able to understand or respect Magnus' need to put the duty to his people first? Like Alec has shown to have some problems with balancing his duty and his personal life but he fully understands that both are important and both need to coexist. So it does seem to be something that they could talk about. Like Magnus being quite clear with Alec that he will not allow his love for Alec to sway the decisions he needs to make in order to keep his people safe. Which I believe Alec would have no problem with (and really shouldn't since that is what he is doing as well). So for me, Magnus was really bullshitting his way through this. Pretending there was an immovable external force preventing them from being together when really: I think he freaked out when he realized that he was actually about to base his decision about his people on Alec's needs. So he got scared that he was getting in too deep much too fast. And that maybe he was alone in that. That he was starting to lose himself and needed to put a stop to that. Together with the 'betrayal' he must have felt about Alex lying and his underlying Traumas it makes total sense that this would be his reaction. But sadly I think that's why there is little Alec can do about it. Because in the end Magnus needs to understand what he's really scared of. And when he says he can't have both he doesn't mean that it's not possible to have both, it just means he can't do it. And ffs: so we know Luke is against siding with the Seelie Queen. Raphael doesn't seem happy and Magnus is now speaking for all the Downworlders? Like I hope they explain more about this decision making process here. Because man, some of that is so filled with plot holes! :)
We all know that those are his exact thoughts!
The moment the person who made you believe that you could be more than just a leader - that you could be a whole person that fights and leads and loves and hopes - tells you that you can’t.
And you want to believe he is wrong, you want to believe with all your heart that you can have both. You can be both.
But he has been around hundreds of years. Has loved, learned and grown through all that time. And still is not able to do that.
So what chance do you really have?
And you ask yourself if it was even worth trying…
😭 why you do this, alec’s heartbroken crying face was so sad and hard to watch
Just sharing all my pain with the world! 😳😭 While crying in a corner with Alec!
I wish that ao3 had an option to filter warnings (and tbh certain authors) out like I will never ever want to read it and just seeing it puts me off so much that often I end up closing my browser because that content upsets me so much lmao
There is a way to do this but I can’t recall how to do it. it’s something you type into the box for “other filters” or something, I don’t remember. who knows?? It’s not a great option, and I don’t know if you can sort out authors that way, but it’s better than nothing if someone can reblog this with how to do it!
Alrighty friends! It takes some specificity, but you can do this. Let me show you how!
So I started with going to the Sherlock (TV) section of Ao3. On the right we find this lovely section! ((I know I’m going over things you already probably know, but I figure this post may go to new Ao3 users, so bear with me.))
Underneath this, I chose sort by Kudos, because that’s a quick way to find most popular fics, for the sake of this demonstration.
With those filters on, we end up with this being our first two results:
As you can see, we have Nature and Nurture by earlgreytea68, and The Internet Is Not Just For Porn by cyerus. So what if I am utterly sick of seeing earlgreytea68 on my list? Let’s pretend I’ve read all their fics, or that I just don’t like her, or whatever. I want this author out. I go to this section on the right:
In “Search within results” I type earlgreytea68 into the bar, with a minus sign in front. This gives me the following page, upon hitting the sort and filter button:
There goes earlgreytea68! But now I’ve decided that Crack is just not my thing, I’m sick of that, too, for heaven’s sake, I want something reasonable in my gay slash fanfiction about detectives that solve crimes about glowing dogs and irish megalomaniacs. Heaven forbid this get ridiculous.
Well, then I add this to my search:
Which gets rid of everything with that tag. My results are now:
Performance in a Leading Role is now my first result!
You can do this as many times as you want; the biggest problem I have is trying to filter out multi-worded tags. For example, “Secret Relationship” is hard to filter. Better to go with authors you dislike or with words like “DubCon”.
I hope this helps! Also remember that googling site:archiveofourown.org and then adding search terms will mean google searches Ao3 for you, and sometimes that works far better.
Good luck!
An excellent in-depth guide! Thank you!!
omg changed my whole ao3 rarepair game
An excellent guide to filtering on AO3!
You can filter out phrases by enclosing them in quotes. For example, if ABO and Hydra Trash Party are not your things, try:
-“alpha/beta/omega dynamics” -”hydra trash party”
I have more advice!
Say, you’re in your random fandom- I went with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, since I’ve been reading Iron Man stuff recently. Tony Stark is awesome.
But anyway, you’re on the page, and you see that there are 174,774 works! That is way too many for a casual afternoon’s browsing.
And you see that the first one is Peter Parker/Tony Stark and that is not your jam. It doesn’t work for you, or it squicks you, whatever. Wouldn’t life be easier if you could browse without seeing that pairing (or whatever pairing you don’t like)? You can!
First, click on that pairing tag(You may want to open this in another tab, actually.):
and it’ll take you to the page for that pairing tag. Click this button:
and then look at the address bar! The actual page is unimportant. Copy the numbers located here:
and go back to the original search page! Down on the side, in the same place you can get rid of other tags, type -relationship_ids:”the number you just copied”
Then hit ‘sort and filter’ annnd… magic!
The fics with that pairing are gone! You can also do multiple pairings, get rid of any tags you don’t like, and sort it by date or length or kudos, or whatever.
Enjoy.
I’d just like to add that these sorts of search modifiers ALSO WORK IN GOOGLE AND MOST RESEARCH DATABASES. The more you know.
or just use the ao3rdr extension and blacklist names/tags/authors/words. It’s super easy.
Most helpful guide ever!
The moment the person who made you believe that you could be more than just a leader - that you could be a whole person that fights and leads and loves and hopes - tells you that you can't. And you want to believe he is wrong, you want to believe with all your heart that you can have both. You can be both. But he has been around hundreds of years. Has loved, learned and grown through all that time. And still is not able to do that. So what chance do you really have? And you ask yourself if it was even worth trying...
How can they be so precious?