limitededitionbarbie

Latest Posts by limitededitionbarbie

My mother had a regular, plain childhood. Nothing she ever complained about, anyway. And she complains often. No abuse or neglect or any significant pain.

So where did her cruelty come from?

I’ve been conditioned to expect villainous people- or even just regular mean people- to have pain themselves. Something unhealed and ugly they must let out in any twisted way.

But she didn’t. There’s no reason for her to be like this. Or to do the things she did.

And yet she is cruel.

And though there is something unhealed and ugly she gave me, I don’t want to let it out on anyone. I feel an instinct to soothe and mother people in pain. I can’t make sense of it. It’s backwards.

And yet I love her. I will deal with the consequences of loving her for the rest of my life.

DEI does not mean lower standards.

You are thinking of white privilege.

"the world isn't kind" ok??? Much more importantly are you?????

“the ending is always the same”

war of the foxes - richard siken / waterloo - ABBA / euripides’ medea - the little theatre / anne carson / the three fates - luca cambiaso / the oresteia - aeschylus / road to hell II - hadestown / when i met you - mira lightner / andersen’s fairy tale anthology

did you know?

eating can make you be not lightheaded

I can’t believe how many basic concepts I have to relearn. Yes going outside and drinking water WILL make you feel better. Yes doing hard things IS rewarding. Yes there IS worth within me. Yes people DO love me. I knew these things and felt I should be ahead of the curve, I don’t need to learn or come of age like other people do. And then I felt it was more poignant and intellectual to be in pain.

Now I’ve let myself relearn the basics. Love finds its way back. I run my fingers through the dirt again.

By the way, you can improve your executive function. You can literally build it like a muscle.

Yes, even if you're neurodivergent. I don't have ADHD, but it is allegedly a thing with ADHD as well. And I am autistic, and after a bunch of nerve damage (severe enough that I was basically housebound for 6 months), I had to completely rebuild my ability to get my brain to Do Things from what felt like nearly scratch.

This is specifically from ADDitude magazine, so written specifically for ADHD (and while focused in large part on kids, also definitely includes adults and adult activities):

ADDitude

How to Sharpen Executive Functions: Activities to Hone Brain Skills

Executive functioning skills range from working memory to cognitive flexibility to inhibitory control, and beyond. They power our daily func

Here's a link on this for autism (though as an editor wow did that title need an editor lol):

Kenneth Roberson, Ph.D.

Enhancing Executive Functioning Difficulties in Adults with Autism

Practical Strategies for Enhancing Executive Functioning Difficulties in Adults With Autism - Living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as

Resources on this aren't great because they're mainly aimed at neurotypical therapists or parents of neurdivergent children. There's worksheets you can do that help a lot too or thought work you can do to sort of build the neuro-infrastructure for tasks.

But a lot of the stuff is just like. fun. Pulling from both the first article and my own experience:

Play games or video games where you have to make a lot of decisions. Literally go make a ton of picrews or do online dress-up dolls if you like. It helped me.

Art, especially forms of art that require patience, planning ahead, or in contrast improvisation

Listening to longform storytelling without visuals, e.g. just listening regularly to audiobooks or narrative podcasts, etc.

Meditation

Martial arts

Sports in general

Board games like chess or Catan (I actually found a big list of what board games are good for building what executive functioning skills here)

Woodworking

Cooking

If you're bad at time management play games or video games with a bunch of timers

Things can be easier. You might always have a disability around this (I certainly always will), but it can be easier. You do not have to be this stuck forever.

the neurodivergent experience:

20% of the time: wowwieee!!! i love my passions and interests!!!!! they make me so happy i want to jump up and down!!!!! weee!!!!!!! :3333333333

80% of the time: this mind is a prison

Could you explain every Christine's costume? Or just what kind of dresses they are?

I could give you the short version - and my interpretation of them (which might not be identical to other interpretations of it). You get little about seams and a lot about possible historical sources, so read only if you’re really interested… Slavegirl: This costume is clever. When the dancers stands still, they look dressed. When moving, they look a lot more naked, due to the flimsiness of the rope skirt. Yet the costumes are rich, expensive. In Roman times “slave“ didn’t automatically imply rags and dirt. A wealthy man would pride himself in dressing up his slaves well. Slaves could be the most beloved girlfriend, the family’s accountant, the head masters of schools, the best chef in town, the most sought after doctor, the superstar gladiator. It’s very ambiguous. 

The splendor of Hannibal and Elissa’s court in Carthage is therefore reflected in the splendor of their slave’s clothes. Their costumes aren’t true historical costumes; rather how the Victorians might have envisioned it. The bodice is corseted, of alternating red and green panels, and with the seams covered with gold trims. The skirt is made of ropes (not too unlike Bronze Age Egtvedt Girl), attached to a golden belt. The decorations on the bodice - the gold collar and the “crotch tiara” are strangely sexual, covering the erotic zones of the girls. It’s probably a nod to how the at times random ballets in the Parisian operas was meant to be eye candy for the wealthy male patrons. In addition they wear flesh coloured tights, velvet panties, gold tiaras, gold wristbands, and pointe shoes. Elissa: Elissa, Queen of Carthage, one of the lead roles in the mock opera “Hannibal”. This is the role Christine suddenly has to fill in for, and she becomes a singing sensation overnight. Again the red, green and gold shades are kept, and again the design shows how Victorians would envision a historical style rather than showing actual historical style. But I’ve always believed the design for the Queen of Carthage is more than a nod to the snake goddesses of the ancient Minoan culture of Crete. It’s one of the few historical sources showing long skirts, aprons, "corseted” bodices with bare chests, pleats and X like decorations on the hem. But they’ve gotten another Greek inspiration in terms of choice of fabrics - that of the Byzantine empire. The more gold and the bolder colours, the better. 

The main costume here consists of a bell shaped skirt with an apron, glittering tabs, waterfall backdrapes and a corseted bodice. There’s also a tiara and additional jewelry. Carlotta’s version of the skirt is usually a bit bigger than Christines, and Christine’s has another waistline so the skirt can be put over the Slavegirl costume and still look like a pointed bodice. Dressing gown: A dressing gown is a garment worn when dressing up in the morning or changing at night, covering the underwear. This one is as such more Edwardian than Victorian in style. Victorian dressing gowns were usually bolder and heavier, more colourful, more patterns, while Edwardian dressing gowns were lighter and often paler and with lace.

Christine Daaé’s dressing gown is made of patterned silk. It has a fairly fitted bodice and a trained skirt, and elbow long sleeves with engageants (lace hanging down from the elbows). There is a similar flounce around the neck opening and around the skirt opening and train. When closed it still shows a bit of the collar of the Slavegirl costume underneath, but the gold wristbands and the tiara is removed. The pointe shoes is also removed, showing white pumps with a Baroque (curved) heel instead. Il Muto Maid / Serafimo: Here Christine plays a man who’s dressed up as a woman (pants role). She wears a frilly shirt and a bell shaped, knee length skirt. Underneath are tight-fitting breeches. The shirt is ambiguous, functioning both as a man’s frilly shirt and a woman’s fluffy blouse. The frilly cap on her head is called a mob cap. She also wears pumps with a buckle and a Baroque heel. The colours are kept in fresh pastels, ochre, mint, pink, turquoise, green, opposite delicate white lace. Rooftop:When Christine goes from playing Serafimo to playing The Countess, replacing Carlotta in the lead role, she is dressed up in a grand costume. This is not meant to be the same costume Carlotta wears - Carlotta’s shows a corset, underskirt and dressing gown - what’s worn when dressing up. Christine plays the countess a bit later in the opera, when she’s fully dressed. Her costume is a hybrid of a Robe de Cour (stiff and grand court dress) and a Robe a la Francaise (softer dress, still used by the nobility and still very posh, but differently constructed). 

The dress is usually made with a separate bodice and skirt, attached together. The fabrics used to be a rich silk or brocade of sorts with a sequined lace fabric on top, creating an amazing glitter and depth. Today they often go for metallic brocades instead. All kinds of colours has been seen, from almost white to pale blue to mint to lilac to pink. The front has a false underskirt front with horizontal lace decorations, and rich decorations at the front bodice as well. As most of Christine’s costumes this one too got engageant sleeves. At the rooftop she wears a mint or blue hooded cloak - the shade makes it looks like Christine is bathed in moonlight - while she during the applause wears a big, “powdered” wig. Star Princess: Christine’s Masquerade costume has a hint of her ballet past - she wears a soft pink tutu and a corseted, sleeveless bodice. The costume is accented by blue and silver, and sprinkled with hundreds of silver stars. The bodice goes from pink in the lower half to blue/purple in the upper half, like a sunrise or a sunset. The same kind of shading can be seen in the skirt, being pink in the outer layers and blue in the inner layers. The bodice is decorated with hundreds of beads in curved and pointed shapes echoing that of the tabs. Christine also wears a crescent moon tiara, and blue and silver boots. Silks, tulles and a lot of beads is used for this costume, and it’s allegoric. Wishing dress (2nd Managers): This dress is the first (and only) personal Victorian dress we see Christine wear in the whole show. She wears it when at the Manager’s office when learning the Phantom wants her to play the lead in his opera, and she wears it to the graveyard when visiting her father’s grave. This dress is made of the same blue stripy/floral silk all over the world (apart from some very few versions), and is maybe the most iconic female costume in POTO. 

The dress is typical of the 1870s, with a defined bustle, heavy drapes, historical references and lots of trims. It mimics the late 17th century/ early 18th century Mantua, especially in the waterfall backdrapes and the engageant sleeves. Up until the early 20th century bright blue was the colour of young girls (think Alice in Wonderland), and this dress certainly has a more innocent look than Carlotta’s military decorated red dress. It’s decorated with flowers in the bodice, often echoing the flower pattern of the fabric. In the Mausoleum scene she wears an additional hooded cloak. As such more late Rococo/Early Regency in style, as cloaks for bustle dresses (dolman) were tailored to enhance the bustle. But the style is still fitting for the moody theme of the graveyard. I believe designer Maria Bjørnson glanced at the photo photo of Meryl Streep in “The French Lieutenant’s Wife” when designing the cloak. The costume design reminds a lot of that photo. AmintaI often refer to this as “Flamenco meets Rococo”. It has several Rococo elements, including the bell silhouette, the Pierrot jacket/bodice closing over a stomacher, and the engageant sleeves and the little apron. At the same time the defined black flounces and the rose in the hair reminds of the classic flamenco dresses. 

The costume is made of a salmon silk with embroidery (in the oldest version actual lace was used). The bodice is tight fitting, and there’s elbow length sleeves with engageants. The bodice has an A opening, revealing the stomacher (or decorated corset front) underneath. In the neck opening there is rich fringes, or alternately a fringed scarf. The skirt also has a split, revealing a rich lace underskirt. The actual skirt is somewhere between ankle and knee length, built up by several layers of flounces. Wedding dressThis is the dress the Phantom has prepared for Christine. Hence, it’s not really her personal dress. It has previously been seen on the Mirror Bride. It has a hourglass shaped bodice with elbow length sleeves with flounces. The bodice has a basque (kinda pleated belt around the hips), ending in a big bow in the back. The actual bodice is made of a ribbed cream/metallic fabric, and has either fan decorations or glittering appliqués - or both - over the bust. The skirt has sloaping rows of lace decorations, and a waterfall backdrape in the back. The colours are kept in cream, silver and white. There are no obvious sources for this dress - which I love - but some plausible ones can be seen here. 

kiss kiss fall in love

world peace…..