teahouse treehouse

suddenly, at midnight

[shittalkingclassicliterature]

[intactics]

[mornington-the-crescent]

[theotherendcomics]

[call-me-moby-dick]

[lady-raziel]

This is why we can never let local news die. Commitment to the bit as an art form must survive

[spirkbitch]

They keep trying to make trek for modern sensibilities but they’re just making tos look excessively slutty

[spirkbitch]

Exhibit A

[spirkbitch]

I liked these tags but I had something to say about it

I already assumed that the dresses were a choice made by the female crew, mostly for my own sanity. They do show (very infrequently) women in tos wearing pants

And they show men wearing dresses in tng, but only ever in the background (unless you count the dress uniforms)

And obviously I like that these were included, but they were clearly a cop out decision.

“Yeah see men can wear dresses, women can wear pants. They just don’t choose to” reads as “of course I’m not sexist, women just like wearing tiny little dresses in the future”

And thinking about it from a late sixties perspective, many women did see more revealing clothes as an empowering choice to make. Men wanted women covered and modest, understated makeup, only exposed or done up for male enjoyment. Some women took that in the opposite direction and chose to wear more extravagant makeup, revealing clothing, and brighter colors. It was a progressive time, and some of the choices made in an attempt to highlight that in the show did not age well.

But at the same time, you can clearly see that some of these “progressive” points were only added in as a write off.

[anghraine]

And thinking about it from a late sixties perspective, many women did see more revealing clothes as an empowering choice to make. Men wanted women covered and modest, understated makeup, only exposed or done up for male enjoyment. Some women took that in the opposite direction and chose to wear more extravagant makeup, revealing clothing, and brighter colors.

I think it's worth emphasizing that this very genuinely is the main reason for the "sexist" miniskirts. IRL, women were often not choosing between sexy miniskirts and non-objectifying pants, but long skirts (respectable) and short skirts (rebellious). Deliberately wearing short skirts as rebellion against patriarchal control that mandated long skirts or maaaaybe loose slacks on a good day is still hardly unknown among girls/women leaving conservative communities in the USA, and was only more commonly coded that way at the time.

Sally Kellerman, the actress for Elizabeth Dehner, found the close fit of the supposedly more feminist pants uncomfortable and is often given something to hold in front of her because she was so intensely self-conscious about them. Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand) loathed the more "proper" initial look and worked with the (gay) costume designer, William Ware Theiss, to design a different, more daring and cool-looking aesthetic for women of the future that appealed to her personally. That was what resulted in the miniskirt uniform design. No doubt it served the objectifying tastes of various straight men involved, but literally zero of them were responsible for the design of Whitney's and Nichols's uniforms.

Not only did Nichelle Nichols not consider herself suffering from the miniskirt, she admitted later to sometimes deliberately lifting the skirt even higher at Uhura's station to show off more of her legs because she hadn't worked so hard on her body to not show them off. Meanwhile, Jill Ireland, the actress for Leila Kalomi, was nervous that she might have to wear the kinds of revealing costumes so many other TOS actresses did, and Theiss instead designed her the comfortable overalls she wears as Leila in "This Side of Paradise."

The kneejerk backlash against short skirts (in decidedly more reactionary eras of both Star Trek and US culture) led to both the large-scale disappearance of the skirts and the snide commentary on them throughout later iterations of Trek, with zero consideration of the fact that they were designed by a gay man to suit the preferences of the leading actresses at a time when they commonly represented rebellion. The Berman-era Star Trek productions tut-tutting at the old costumes while actually putting actresses in uncomfortable, form-fitting uniforms they disliked is ... uh, something else.

Even while the female Starfleet costumes shifted towards pants (and militarism) in the movies, btw, Nichelle Nichols insisted on getting to wear skirts as Uhura—because she liked them and she had little patience for 80s respectability.

[herpsandbirds]

[bisexualcreature-deactivated202]

lvl 1: the plural of octopus is octopuses because the plural version of a word is the word with an s at the end

lvl 2: the plural version of octopus is octopi because if a word ends with "us" the plural version replaces the "us" with "i" e.g. cactus -> cacti and fungus -> fungi

lvl 3: actually, that rule is only for latin words. octopus is a greek word and the correct plural is octopuses or octopodes

lvl 4: actually, language is descriptive not prescriptive. since enough people over time have used octopi as the plural for octopus, it's a valid plural

lvl 5: the plural of octopus is octopeese, like geese

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Lvl 6: My Marine Biology professor told me it was technically “Octopods” to bring it in line with “Cephalopod,” but that if the class is falling asleep you can call them “Octopussies”

[valtsv]

thinking about the ethics of prophecy and its role as a narrative tool of coercion and control again

[valtsv]

like. if you're beholden to a set of conditions that must either be followed or subverted in order to produce a favourable outcome or avoid unfavourable consequences (or led to believe you are), subject to the decree of a higher authority whose statements you are expected to accept as the absolute, unbiased, factual truth, and structure your existence in accordance with, is that not just prison? you can't convince me that isn't just an elaborate psychologically abusive prison.

[valtsv]

it's not enough to simply defy the prophecy we need to abolish fate

[decadent-hag]

If you're too soft it's because you didn't read any of these books by the age of 10. If you read all of them by age 9 you're mentally ill now.

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[apolloniansorrow]

ALSO ARTISTS LOOK AT THIS SO YALL CAN STOP DRAWING UR “PALE” BLACK CHARACTERS WHITE

[larkandkatydid]

It’s cool how we found the secret elixir that cures all human disease and it’s in this guy’s bitey little mouth

[larkandkatydid]

What this guy’s bitey little mouth has been recently up to:

[sauriansolutions]

This is why scientists study everything.

[mikkeneko]

Put this picture in your pocket, next time you get into an argument with someone about 'useless' scientific studies, ask them "Do you think that we should give funding to study the mating habits of endangered iguanas in the Sonoran desert, or should we be funding cures for alzheimer's and diabetes?" and then when they say "Of course we should be using that money to fund cures!" you can whip out this picture and say "trick question, it's the same thing"

[great-and-small]

This is why you must take great care not to get too absorbed in your subject when birding in Florida.

[birds-in-posts]

Double-crested cormorant (Nannopterum auritum)

[hexjulia]

[neolithic hottie who's been easing back into the modern dating scene]: so when he said he was a pot caster i thought he was a good artisan with a reliable income. But turns out he just talks to himself all day mostly. People don't even come to listen and he doesn't know shit about ceramics. Sometimes one of his friends is there though.

[One eyed priest-king who's been frozen in the ice for 10 000 years next to a mammoth but is starting to thaw]: girl no wayyyyy. What is slip casting a pot btw. The use of that technique (not to be confused with slipware) purportedly only dates back to the Tang Era (618–917).

[hexjulia]

[cornish tin miner from 3000 years ago]: my deposits may have played a key part in the advances of sophisticated kingdoms and states more than 4,000km (2,485 miles) away. #myDeposits.

[lleyksie]

more ancient horse mamaposting

[pascel]

Designs

[tpwrtrmnky]

researchers: this condition is underdiagnosed advocacy groups: we'll spread knowledge that it's underdiagnosed healthcare workers: some of us will use expanded diagnostic criteria now patients: wow we finally know what's up

tabloids: the condition is mysteriously spreading. this is DANGEROUS.

[tpwrtrmnky]

healthcare workers who don't want to get with the times: as an authority on this subject, i say this is super duper scary. i have been half-assing care for some patients who have this condition for 70 years and so i am the highest authority you should listen to. researchers? more like reprobates.

[anexperimentallife]

[uncivilliberties]

Too good et cetera et cetera