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[regenerationofthedoctor]

Previous Doctor Who companions’ reactions to the 13th Doctor announcement!

[dimitresque]

hogwarts houses + pantone palettes

[knifesonyu]

yes was been 20 years, this story mean so much to me, till now, always. 

[pleatedjeans]

[king-pickle]

“I can confirm that it’s definitely complicated.” “As much as it is possible for a human male, try not to be an idiot.” This is so overly complicated and suspenseful and weird I love this episode

[doctorwho]

“I’ll take care of the rest.”

[ratladyme]

[amelancholywood]

I LITERALLY THINK THIS EVERY TIME THE SONG COMES ON

[disastergwenom]

What song is this talking about?

[the8thsphynx]

‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’

Otherwise known as the original ‘Blurred Lines’

[masquerading-as-a-genius]

HEY FRIENDS HISTORICAL REMINDER: ‘WHAT’S IN THIS DRINK’ ISN’T TALKING ABOUT DRUGS, HE IS NOT TRYING TO ROOFIE HER

THE SONG IS TALKING ABOUT ALCOHOL

but still a pushy song

[aphony-cree]

historical reminder that the reason pina coladas and pink squirrels are known as “girly drinks” is because they mask the taste of alcohol and men were know to give women these drinks without informing them that they were alcoholic. It takes a couple of drinks to realize you’ve been consuming alcohol and by then you’re more susceptible to suggestion, making it easier for him to convince you to stick around and have a third drink. When this song was written in 1944 most women didn’t drink regularly, meaning they had a low tolerance and it would only take 2-3 drinks to get her drunk enough that she wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight. This was the 1940s version of being roofied

[dangerwaffle-deactivated2016121]

No no no it was not.

“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol. 

See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.

Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because unlike in Blurred Lines, the woman actually has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so. She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposedto, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.” And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.

So it’s not actually a song about rape - in fact it’s a song about a woman finding a way to exercise sexual agency in a patriarchal society designed to stop her from doing so. But it’s also, at the same time, one of the best illustrations of rape culture that pop culture has ever produced. It’s a song about a society where women aren’t allowed to say yes…which happens to mean it’s also a society where women don’t have a clear and unambiguous way to say no.

[laughterkey]

That last sentence, though.

[emolumentsclause-deactivated201]

THAT WHOLE PIECE OF COMMENTARY, THOUGH. Thank you, dangerwaffle, because I am so sick of hearing “it’s really about date rape!” about this fucking song from people who don’t really understand the social or historical context.

[sadscent]

[cr1mson5thestranger]

Important PSA

Okay, so…Trump won. And I’m never gonna not be worried about everybody, really.

But I need you all to know that threatening harm to the President of the United States is a class E felony under United States law and can get you investigated by the Secret Service, arrested, put on trial, and even put in jail. Even comments that you make online can carry this punishment. I know everyone’s angry, but please don’t do anything that could get you put in jail.

[feralkwe-deactivated20210912]

i forget that some people may not know this. please don’t even joke about it online. they will see it and take that seriously. please trust me when i say i know this to be a fact.

[wildlyunlikelybabe]

DumpTruck is not the president yet but also yes this is illegal. But only for non privileged folx cuz wypipo been out here threatening Obama life from day 1 so…..

[storm-tornado-archive]

lm-g1:

Okay Republicans. I’ll play your game. You will have a senate, the house majority, and presidency. I expect the debt to be fixed, no international conflict of any kind, no raise in oil prices, 90%+ insurance coverage, among other things in the next two years. Oh, and if Democrats filibuster the hell out of you no complaining since the Republicans broke every record for obstructionism in the last four years. Chop chop.

[rosetyilers-deactivated20220901]

american but amerishouldn’t

[rachelrn]

Can this be our foreign policy from now on

[texasenchantment]

The fact that I’m legally an adult is hysterical

[leahclio-deactivated20131231]

Life is too short for shitty sex and bad relationships. So go find someone who fucks you right and treats you how you deserve to be treated.

(via itcuddles)

[bookmania]

You cannot convince people to love you. This is an absolute rule. No one will ever give you love because you want him or her to give it. Real love moves freely in both directions. Don’t waste your time on anything else.

Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar (via bookmania)

[lurknomoar-deactivated20130506]

Ron is racist - and that's great

Ron Weasley’s character is consciously written as somewhat racist. Not as racist as Malfoy, of course - he doesn’t scoff at mudbloods and halfbloods, and he doesn’t see himself as superior at all. Still, he unquestionably accepts the inferior position of house elves (they love serving), when he finds out that Lupin’s werewolf his reaction is not only scared but also disgusted (Don’t touch me!) and he is clearly very uncomfortable finding out that Hagrid is half-giant (giants are wild and savage).

And this is brilliant. Because it demonstrates that racism isn’t only present in clearly malicious and evil people, in the Malfoys and Blacks - it’s also there in warm, kind, funny people who just happened to learn some pretty toxic things growing up in a pretty toxic society. And they can unlearn them too, with some time and effort. Ron eventually accepts Hagrid’s parentage, lets Lupin bandage his leg and in the final battle, he worries about the safety of the house elves.

Some people are prejudiced because they are evil, and some people are prejudiced because they don’t know better yet. And those people can learn better, and become better people. And that’s an important lesson. The lesson taught about discrimination shouldn’t be “only evil people do it”, because then all readers will assume it doesn’t apply to them. Instead old JK teaches us “you too are probably doing it, and you should do stop ASAP”. 

[ringrrl]

Book Club

I’m curious, people of Tumblr: If you are in a book club, how do you decide on the next book? The Book Club I’m in works like this:  When it is your turn, you present 3 books to the group, and the rest of Book Club gets to vote.  Book with the most votes is the one the group reads next. 

[thelibrawrian-deactivated201912]

I see a lot of posts on tumblr that imply borrowing a book from a library is less supportive of the author than buying it outright and I would like to offer a few unsolicited thoughts as to why that’s not true:

Every book in a public library has to earn its spot on the shelf. If no one checks it out, then it will be weeded from the collection to make way for a book that will circulate. So, if you check out a book, you’ve just given it a much a better chance at being there for someone else to discover!

A recently returned book is more likely to be propped up as a display in the tiny nooks around the library. Every shelver loves an empty display space because it means they can quickly get rid of several books. A book on display is more likely to catch someone’s eye and on and on!

You might not be able to tell this just by looking at the shelves, but when a book first comes out from an author, the library often buys several copies and based on how many people have reserved the title and how heavily it circulates, they might buy even more copies! Also, when purchasing a new title from an established author, many librarians will look at the circ stats of the author’s other books and will use that as a guide for how many copies to buy of the new book. In case you didn’t know, libraries buy a lot of books - we make up a huge portion of the book sales market.

Many people use the library as a way to discover new authors. It’s a risk-free investment and helps them experiment with a lot of different titles that they wouldn’t be able to if they had to buy all of them. And if they really love an author, they might become a life-long fan who will buy their books for years to come, all because of kismet at the library.

If you check out the book at the library, your librarian can make a better case for inviting the author to come to the library for an event for which they can get paid! This is especially true for lesser-known authors.

In conclusion, borrowing a book from the library is a wonderful thing to do. It helps make sure other people have access to that book in the future, creating an ever-wider audience for the author.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy books, I’m just saying, borrowing books from the library has just as many positive effects and you don’t ever have to feel bad that you’re somehow not supporting an author by borrowing their book instead of buying it. :)

[archivlibrarianist]

[lettersfromtitan]

Truth. And of your library doesn’t have a book you want, you can request that they get it.

[featheredschist]

And for fucks sake, borrowing a book from the library is not synonymous with torrenting a book off the internet.

[dsudis]

The library does, after all, buy the book. The author gets paid for that! If you request your library to buy a book they don’t have, you’re basically buying it with the library’s money, and then lending it to other people in your community, just as you might loan a book you bought to your friends if you liked it and want them to get hooked along with you.

[rapacityinblue]

Also library bindings usually cost more than your standard mass market, both because they stand up to a lot of wear and to compensate the author for the nature of a library (one purchase, many readers).

[seananmcguire]

Libraries are awesome for all these lovely reasons.