#grimalkina

[ohbthr]

But wait, there's more! 4 & 13

4. What happened the time in your life when you were the most nervous to do something?

I’m having trouble even remembering what this would have been. I’ve been pretty nervous for a few things - maybe an early choir concert before I got used to them? A play? Generally anything involving public speaking I’m not super happy about. And the first time I went rock climbing I almost gave myself a panic attack before I even started, which is weird because once I got up the wall I was fine and now I find it really fun. Anyway, what happened after I got nervous? I don’t know, I did it anyway and it was fine?

13. What “most likely to” superlative would you be most honored to receive?

In high school I would’ve killed for a Most Musical superlative, since I was still basing a lot of my self worth on my singing ability. These days? I dunno man. Most Likely To Eat Sushi Three Nights In A Row? Most Likely To Spend Entire Paycheck At A Combination Of Sephora And Bookstores? Most Likely To Leave Laundry In A Heap On The Other Half Of The Bed And Sleep Like A Dragon Guarding Its Hoard? Take your pick.

[ohbthr]

6, 10, and 16!

6. What’s your worst habit?

I’m actually really messy, and I wish I were better about it. I never put away my clothes except to wash them, I forget to throw away tags and wrappings, I leave dishes out. I’m not really sure how to make myself be better about it - partly it’s laziness, partly it’s a learned habit of filtering mess into my “Someone Else’s Problem” filter, learned by years of having a mom that would clean up after me, so I don’t even really see it.

10. What is your most bizarre pet peeve?

I think my pet peeves are generally pretty normal? I think my biggest one is when people don’t listen, or when people over apologize. For being a big lit nerd I don’t really have grammatical pet peeves.

16. What’s been your favorite age so far?

It doesn’t have a single number attached to it, but I think “last year of undergrad” was a pretty good year for me. And 25 has been okay so far, as they go.

[ohbthr]

Eleven Questions Meme!

I was tagged by aporeticelenchus and didn't notice for a few days, whoops. The rules - answer the questions, make up some more, tag some people, etc.

0. Is the good prior to the right, or is the right prior to the good? NO WAIT COME BACK I WAS JUST KIDDING you don’t actually have to answer this question

You're such an asshole.

1. Do you like to sing?

That's almost like asking if I like to breath. I do sing, anyway, and I was in choir etc. for years and years. I think I'm pretty good at it.

2. What would your patronus be?

A house cat. Seems boring, but they seem to speak to my soul.

3. Do you play video games? If so, share a favorite!

Very rarely. More often Elenchus plays them with me in the room and I watch. However, one of the few games I HAVE played through all the way that I consider the greatest video game of the last twenty years is Okami.

4. What’s a cool skill you have?

Uh, I can dance pretty well? Is that a skill? I can also kind of play piano.

5. Share a recipe, please?

Take the chocolate chip cookie recipe off the back of Nestle chocolate chips. Exchange 1 cup of white flour for 1 cup of wheat flour, and cut both types of sugar to 1/2 cup instead of 3/4. Follow other directions as necessary. Best. Chocolate chip cookies. Ever.

6. Modern art: your cup of tea, or no?

Haha no not really. I just don't Get It.

7. What made you decide to join tumblr?

Embarrassingly, it was the texts from Xavier Academy tumblr. I was mildly obsessed for a little while and needed a way to track it better.

8. How do you feel about Jane Austen?

LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE. SO OFTEN DISMISSED AS ROMANCE. SO OBVIOUSLY MORE THAN THAT IF YOU ACTUALLY READ THE BOOKS. (Not to be dismissive of romance, I love romance. But Jane Austen is very much social commentary that involves women's role in society, which involved marriage by necessity.)

9. Pick a favorite Roman emperor, English king/queen, or US President.

I couldn't possibly. (No honestly, I couldn't, I don't know enough about any of them.)

10. What’s the best language to cuss in?

Uh. Probably German, since everything sounds like a cuss anyway.

11. What kinds of tea do you like?

Not really a tea drinker! Black tea if I'm stealing from my mom, herbal if I'm sick. Snapple peach tea for the rest of the time.

Next questions!

1. Favorite Shakespeare play?

2. Talk about your most recent fandom. Or the book you last finished, whatever.

3. Do you like to watch movies/tv that are/is bad on purpose? If so, what was the most recent terriblawesome thing you watched? If not, what was a good movie you watched recently?

4. You're going to the movies. Do you get popcorn? Soda? Candy? Is your popcorn buttered? (Would you like to have someone assigned to butter your popcorn JUST KIDDING SORRY)

5. Top three favorite bands (of all time, of the moment, up to you).

6. What color dominates your wardrobe?

7. Book that made you cry as a teenager?

8. Do you have an every day makeup routine? If so, describe it (with product recommendations, I can't help myself, I need to know).

9. How long does it take you to shower?

10. You just got home and it was raining and you forgot your umbrella and you're soaked through and starving. What food do you make?

11. The optional one - post a selfie of what you look like today!

tagging grimalkina cinquespotted untitledbychoice strigine

[shuryorin]

On Assumption, Pacific Rim, and Kick Ass Ladies

Context time! This response by sanguinarysanguinity to this post by grimalkina about Pacific Rim got me thinking about this.  This is half response to those and half me just talking about something I've been thinking about since seeing the movie, so that combined with the length and spoilers made me decide to use a text post rather than a reblog.

I agree with those posts; the movie doesn't make it all about Raleigh and Raleigh doesn't make it all about Raleigh. This doesn't keep him from being painfully generic, but it certainly makes him a more sympathetic shade of generic than most stubbly blond action heroes. While I still wish Mako had been the primary lead, Raleigh does not embody the things that make me sigh and shake my head at most recent action heroes.

He steps into the rain and sees a woman with a clipboard and an umbrella, and his assumption about her? "Are you a pilot, too?"  He doesn't assume that she's Stacker's assistant or secretary.  He assumes that she's a pilot, like him.  He doesn't assume that she's support personal, there, to quote the post linked above about Raleigh's own role in the film, "to support. To inspire. To guide." He assumes she's his equal and that her role is the same as his.  How sadly rare is that in an action movie?  When there is a kick ass lady in a movie, how often is there a scene where White Male Stubbly Protagonist Guy assumes that she's support personnel and then she reveals her kick ass status and embarrasses WMSPG?

Support personnel are vital to any large scale operation and often to small scale operations as well. Many of them have difficult and under-appreciated jobs.  I am not, nor will I ever, trying to dismiss the importance of support personnel.  However, there is a mindset in our society that women are unsuited to a central combat role and thus, if participating in an operation involving combat roles, must be support personnel. Films that point to there kickass lady and go "see, she subverted your expectations of women! how amazing!" are also often drawing attention to those characters as exceptions. These films assume that it's unusual for a woman to be or to aspire to be in a central combat role.  This doesn't make the films inherently awful.  This doesn't invalidate anything positive about them.  I love a lot of movies that do this.  But even a movie perfect in every other respect may have an overused, mildly problematic scene.

So let's go back to Pacific Rim. Raleigh sees Mako and goes "You seem cool! Are you a pilot? I'm a pilot! Let's be pilots together! :D " *  And the movie treats this as a completely normal, expected reaction. Raleigh does not see any reason to assume that Mako isn't a pilot and the film does not see any reason to assume that Mako isn't a pilot.  Because why even make a big deal about how women can be pilots too and it's silly to assume that they can't? There's no need to address the obvious.

*I may have paraphrased slightly

So while I wish they let Mako be the primary protagonist instead of feeling the need to put in a WMSPG, I'm a lot more tolerant of Raleigh than some other generic heroes I can think of.