#ms. killjoy

[thornswithroses]

Machismo is such a fucking poison.

And, I know, I know people are going to try blame white women on the elections tonight but so many men of color have been leaning more to the right and they should be lambasted so much more.

[thornswithroses]

I wish I can put to better words just how limiting the writing of so-called sex-positive writing in fiction and nonfiction can be to me as a woman. Like it wants to subvert female roles in relationships, but it somehow adds more pressure on women.

And there’s also this writing that frustrates me where they want to be all, “hey, women can be entitled assholes too!” Which, yes, of course, they can, but are we going to pretend that women can get away with being assholes as much as men can?

[thornswithroses]

Also, I’m starting to realize right now that a particular issue feminists my age range have. We too often go to one extreme or the other--either we try to politicize every single damn thing that exists, or we try to depoliticize everything to seem less threatening and ignore the importance of context and what have you. 

And sometimes I think social media, not just Tumblr, has made that all the messier. 

[thornswithroses]

As a white passing person, the white passing discourse is...something.

It reminds me of the time the curly hair community kept swearing that this curly-haired Korean woman was multiracial and she had to show her dna test that read 100% East Asian so they could shut up.

Just because a person of color is light-skinned, or has bleached/textured hair, or has sharp features, etc. doesn't mean they're "white-passing."

[thornswithroses]

Leftists are already complaining that Biden likely won't be using his remaining days to end student debt.

Yeah, that's probably because he's trying to rush aid to Ukraine as much as he can.

And, look, sorry, but Ukraine is a million times more important than forgiving your student loans.

The way y'all complain about that while people's lives are at stakes is making me, a person that is pro-student loan forgiveness, really wish he hadn't offered at all.

Like fuck you.

[thornswithroses]

We're all lurkers now

No one's talking online anymore.

So now social media’s almost five billion users are not turning to talk to each other but each turning outward, shouting their skincare routines or restaurant recommendations or opinions into a void. We’re all just online for ourselves, which means there are fewer and fewer people to be the audience—to like, comment, or otherwise interact. As a result, our outward-facing posts are getting less engagement, and we’re less inclined to share them. We’re growing silent, lurking, sitting in these digital rooms out of habit, and not because we really want to be there. 

[thornswithroses]

Is BookTok sucking the joy out of reading?

Instead of encouraging people to read what they want, when they want, BookTok is increasingly pressuring users to treat reading like a compe

Even for those who do manage to read upwards of 50 titles a year, the experience hardly seems enjoyable. “I can finish one to two books a day, or maybe even three depending on my mood,” one avid reader confesses in a video about how to read faster. She has posted a lot of ‘tips’ for reading faster, such as to stop subvocalising (reading the book in your head), skim read, chunk words together, and use your finger to trace the line of text. Similarly, another video posted by Alex & Books shows you how to read a book in a week, by dividing the total page number by seven in order to block out your page count for each day. Another reader suggests that you should “stop buying books that are too hard for you” and choose “easier, quicker stories” – suggesting it’s quantity, not quality, which reigns supreme on BookTok.   Despite the well-intentioned trend and the benefits of setting reading targets, the pressure to binge a stack of books can create a toxic, stressful environment for some users. It also leans into the hyper-consumerism ingrained in the culture of BookTok, where being a reader involves splurging on tons of books new gadgets like Kindle clickers, bigger bookshelves, and hardback limited editions to be viewed as a true member of the community. But the pleasure of reading not only comes from whizzing through a fast-paced section that leaves you unaware of your surroundings, but also being all-consumed in a fictional world, taking time to take in each page. And yet the joy of spending weeks immersed in one book is becoming less of a priority for bookworms on BookTok, as people rush to read as many books as possible to keep up with everyone else’s quota. 

This is probably why I find a lot of BookTok recommendations to suck.

[thornswithroses]

Honestly, people can write off Barbie (2023) for its Feminism 101 all they want, but it really is one of the few movies I've seen where a woman views aging as beautiful and wants to grow old. It's shouldn't feel rare, but it is.