Mini Bug & Kitty Noir

Fan of Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug & Cat Noir 🐞🐱 17 y.o. Belgian girl

[tonightweredrinkingfromthebong]

[lanawhatever-deactivated2018050]

nakedsasquatch it’s ya man

[nakedsasquatch]

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)

[justplainsomething]

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.

[bifca]

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

[ms-demeanor]

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.

[starline]

2nd reblog because this is even better. 

[obaewankenope]

George of the Jungle discourse is definitely what I signed up to this hellsite for me thinks

[toriitorii]

Oh! Maybe you could draw a 2 with Marichat <3

[hchano]

HER FLIPPIN NOSE IS SCRUNCHED UP OH MY GOD

[mwagneto]

Marinette: wow! You really got that catwalk down :)

Adrien:

[inactive244224522-deactivated20]

Dontmakeapundontmakeapundontmakeapunyourenotchatnoirdontmakeapun

[inkshila]

that’s exactly what he was thinking

[lnc2]

Alya is ride or die let me tell you.

[lnc2]

And poor Adrien is too dumb to live but at least he’s pretty.

[lnc2]

Alya lays claim to Emma.

[thepowerofplagg]

Huh. Two buns indeed.

[televisiontelepath]

Do you ever think about how ML all the time shows Adrien isolated

Or in his bedroom, the main feature of which is bar-like windows

that’re always casting a shadow over him when he’s at home.

Do you ever think about how this kid with the power to destroy anything, anything he wants, uses it almost exclusively to disintegrate bars,

and chains

And anything that keeps people apart?

Because I think about this all the time and don’t know if I’m capable of stopping.

Current status: experiencing a lot of emotion about this 90s boy band escapee and feeling unsure if it’s recommended.

[luanna255]

OH MY GOSH NO HANG ON, I’M REALLY ANNOYED THAT I DIDN’T THINK OF THIS FIRST NOW.

ESPECIALLY THE THING WITH THE BARS AND CHAINS, BECAUSE LIKE

I have been commenting for months now on Miraculous Ladybug’s tendency to keep putting Chat Noir in bondage-esque situations - having him tied up, handcuffed, put in chains and fetters. It happens all the time:

I just thought it was a coincidence, or at most a knowing wink to the adults in the audience. I never stopped and thought about it more. But shame on me that I didn’t, because I AM ALREADY SO FAMILIAR WITH PEOPLE HAVING THIS DISCUSSION ABOUT WONDER WOMAN.

To those who don’t know, people are constantly making jokes about how often Wonder Woman got tied or chained up in the Golden Age WW comics: 

You hear a lot of bondage jokes about it, and some of that is fair, because WW’s creator (William Moulton Marston) is known to have been into that. But it also ignores that in that era it was a powerful feminist symbol to show a woman breaking free from the ties that kept her bound, and the chains they’d show her breaking were also metaphorical chains. Her creators weren’t exactly subtle about this:

The point wasn’t just to show a woman being bound, but to show a woman being bound and breaking free of it, in the same way that Marston hoped women would break free of the ways society kept them trapped.

And the thing is, I know all of this. I literally have a book about the origins of Wonder Woman that goes into all of this in detail. And yet it never occurred to me once that showing Adrien tied up and chained was supposed to represent the ways he’s metaphorically trapped, but oh my gosh, that makes so much freakin’ sense.

I don’t know if it’s what the creators intended, but Thomas Astruc is a major comic nerd who clearly knows his stuff, so it wouldn’t even surprise me if it was.

[nkvictory]

I find it very interesting that you chose to use the Wonder Woman vs the Patriarchy picture as part of your wonderful meta about how Adrien is treated in universe because Adrien is very much a feminist proxy.

To start with, Adrien is clearly valued for his beauty over his personality and not just by his father, either.  Chloé and Lila are both guilty of treating Adrien like good-looking arm candy and don’t seem to care he’s very uncomfortable in their presence.  It doesn’t help that he’s been trained not to be rude or upset or upset anyone or be anything other than calm from what was likely a very young age, making it hard for him to do more than politely brush them off.  You know, how most girls are socialized to act from a young age.

Then there’s the infamous scene from Jackady/Simon Says where Gabriel literally tells his son he’s had too much emotion for the day.  Most people focus on how horribly emotionally abusive that is.  And it is abusive.  But it’s also a pretty standard example of, “You’re being hysterical.”  Full original meaning.  Woman starts arguing with a man like Adrien did to his father at the start of that scene?  “Hey, you’re getting too worked up about this.  Calm down.”  And it’s still fucking emotionally abusive, even if the people involved aren’t related.

Then there’s Gabriel himself.  As a character, he manages to be both neglectful and extremely controlling.  Which makes a lot of sense if you consider he’s basically the proxy for the Patriarchy.  Distant to the point it’s hard to pinpoint where he/it actually has any power over the situation but the control he/it exerts over any particular situation in Adrien’s life is so very omnipresent.

And I think it’s very important that this is happening to Adrien’s character.  Or just a male character in general.  Because this is the kind of bull women still put up with to the point that it’s pretty damn normative, despite our complaints.  But put a male character in a position where he’s experiencing the same thing the average woman does every day?  Suddenly it’s a lot easier to take a step back, examine it, and then look and point and say, “This!  This is what I’m complaining about!  This is what’s so very wrong!”  Because what Adrien goes through?  Is abusive and degrading and, unfortunately, reflects the daily life of a lot of women even now.

[xxxdreamingflowerxxx]

This is a very interesting topic and I agree. But I think many people are also forgetting one important thing about Adrien. He’s is being emotionally abused by his own father and to make it worse, he doesn’t have any kind of support that can help him out of it. His mom died, which leaves him very lonely. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some abandonment issues or other mental disorder. He hates being lonely and he uses Chat Noir as a way to forget about his situation. The reason he wants to go to school in the first place was to escape the feeling of isolation.

Flirting with Lady Bug, joking around, looking overly happy. It’s the opposite of what he’s been taught at home and it helps him with temporarily forgetting his circumstances. I feel like the bars and chains symbolise that captive and emotionally cold living situation he has at home and that no matter how hard he tries to forget and fight against it. It won’t be easy to get out of that dark place. There will always be moments when he goes back behind those bars and feel lonely. Because no matter how much he wants his father’s acknowledgement the current state of his father can’t provide him with that and Adrien himself doesn’t do much against it either. He never confronted his father about this and I’m sure it won’t be an easy task to do so either. Maybe in he next season we finally get to see Adrien attempting to make I go better. To try and break out of his cage, or in season. But I really look forward to that moment.

[stellalights]

chat: marinette’s in love with me!! no one’s ever liked me before!

chat: *gasp* but what if she doesn’t love adrien??

plagg:

[heizerux]

If you follow the Miraculous International IG account for Livestreams and Updates do NOT ignore this

So sometime yesterday @miraculous_international on Instagram kept posting a LOT of unrelated ML content on their story (which I had notifications on for live-streams), but they eventually stopped that and ended it with a post about being hacked and then “reclaiming” the account.

Guys, the owner didn’t reclaim the account, the HACKER SOLD THE ACCOUNT TO SOME DUMBASS and is using the account to both promote his personal account (the buyer) and is converting the old ML updates/streams account into a meme/dog page for likely hopes of gaining revenue. The worst part is a lot of people aren’t talking about it and are just going with flow believing the lies this person is saying.

The original owner now made a NEW account since the old one is lost and is NOW @miraculousinternational on IG.

If you still want general ml live-streams and updates, PLEASE go follow the right person (and not some fraud)

[kisilinramblings]

Félix : Gabriel’s Promise and Conflict

I haven’t talk much about the Félix episode, have I? I feel like this episode is packed with informations and is a major episode about Gabriel and Emilie and the mystery surrounding them. I might have seen the episode several times now, both in French and in English, yet I still find something new. 

Anyway, for now, I’ll focus on the intro of the episode.

Lees verder

[yeet-noir]

Which Party Crasher is better?

The episode/akuma Party Crasher

Or the Miraculous Instagram Party Crashers

Vote below

[thepowerofplagg]

Adrien on instagram: *posts ANYTHING that has his face on it*

me:

[carpisuns-archive]

[awwdrien]

why ain’t we talking about Adrien borrowing his father’s glasses

[vibrant-verbena]

Or that he looks NOTHING like his father. How does he have such a round face when gabrielle and emellie both have VERY pointed chins and narrow faces?

[thepowerofplagg]

omg you’re right 🤭 !!

[dailymlgifs]

[thepowerofplagg]

“Sauve-moi...”

“Mon pauvre chaton...”

[bloom-n-lueur]

So this f*cker right here

Took the liberty to strip his son of any happiness he could possibly have in his life

He manipulated and threatened a teenage girl

Went out of his way to abuse and torture him, demanding he actually destroys the love of his life

He BROKE his son so bad his powers went rogue bringing down the apocalypse, leaving him all ALONE, heartbroken, driven to insanity

He dared touch this god sent cinnamon roll KNOWING it was his son.

For a pair of earrings to bring back his dead wife. So yeah Chat blanc destroyed me. My crops are burning, my skin is dead, my depression n anxiety are thriving, I’m dehydrated to the max.

[thepowerofplagg]

(Félix trailer spoiler)

(Sorry for the bad quality) When I saw the first scene of the trailer for Félix by gloob...

I immediately thought of THIS tweet.

It’s from the very start obvious that this is NOT, and could never be, Adrien.

Also do you notice how scared she looks? She knows that the kind and polite Adrien would never behave in such a way. Or she hopes so. But he definitely is way too sweet and cares to much about his lady to ever corner her like that.

[miss-inkwell]

It still bothers me to this day that someone actually wanted this she’s terrified!

[miss-inkwell]

I’m kinda sad that at this point Nathalie is too far gone and she’s just as bad as Gabriel because I enjoy her character. Gorilla is the only person in his family that cares about him! I enjoy HawkMoth as a villain mostly for his monologues and stupidity but he’s so horrible.

He could be so happy!

[thepowerofplagg]

I’ve always wondered why Nathalie’s last name is Sancoeur (sans coeur = heartless) and I think I finally know. 🙁

You’re right, Gorilla can tag along😌!