What She Says: I'm Fine.

What she says: I'm fine.

What she means: Alina's relationship with Aleksander is heavily framed as something shameful,as a stain on her character and very existence and how people around her are supposed to be doubtful of her because "she almost fucked the bad guy!! she could be corrupted too!!" While her relationship with Malyen serves heavily to the puritan culture with the "pure,chaste love" trope,defying any passion or sexual chemistry because those things are considered shameful in the society. Malyen is viewed as someone who saves her from said corruption and is considered noble for loving her despite her past with Aleksander and the "bad decisions" she made. Aleksander plays such an important role in her growth but we're supposed to hate that because Aleksander is the villain meanwhile Malyen does nothing but hold her back, limiting her development as a person. The only conclusion I can derive here is that if you were associated with someone wrong in the past,who helped you unleash your full potential,it can all go to shit and you're not going to be valued for that because the very reason for your growth is a monster. Your entire arc is going to be villainized because it's associated to the bad guy. The whole concept of moving on and being your own person is demonized because "you did it once and you ended up in the wrong hands. You started becoming your own person and were so dumb, someone almost made a weapon out of you for their own gain" Alina and her past attraction towards Aleksander makes Alina bad and if she still wants him despite his deeds,she's wrong and "oh so corrupted". That's why Alina goes back to being the same underdeveloped protagonist, because hey,even if she had zero character development at the end of the day, atleast she's not with the bad guy,at least she's one of the good ones. Her only mistake was being unaware of Aleksander's plans,it could've been called a "bad decision" if she was fully aware and yet chose to be involved with him. And it's so funny how Baghra ONLY tells Alina the truth about Aleksander before they're about to have sex,when she had multiple opportunities to tell her the truth AND help her train into being stronger. This only simplifies into "silly girl,thank god i told you the truth,you were about to fuck the bad guy but you didn't so you're saved,you're still pure" What does Aleksander and his behaviour have to do with Alina and her character? How long are we going to let the men in our past define how pure or impure we are? Is this the feminist conclusion I'm supposed to derive from this mess? Is this not what slut shaming is? How long are we going to shit on our heroines so they stay Good™?

5/31/2020

CHICAGOS UNDERCOVER COPS HAVE YELLOW WRISTSBANDS

SPREAD THIS AND STAY SAFE

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rebe0000

5 years ago

Someone put red paint on the "Serve and Protect" sculpture at the Salt Lake City police building and it is such a powerful statement.

"Good art should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." -C.A.C.

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rebe0000

4 years ago

Me: I just think that if Leigh wanted to write a cautionary tale about a manipulative man who is beautiful but not as he seems, she should have made him a non-grisha prince like Nikolai. Because then you have someone who pretends to sympathize with the oppressed Grisha but is actually just exploiting them for his own gain which is a much more interesting commentary on society. And then Alina could have been the revolutionary trying to overthrow the system and help change things for the Grisha, opposed by a non-grisha who wants to control them.

Instead, she makes the villain the one person actively fighting to improve things for the Grisha and ultimately gives Alina very little interest in the cause and makes the non-grisha characters nice and understanding and gives us a message of ‘you just need the nice people to be on the throne and then it will be fine’ which is a naive point of view. Its not about whether or not the Darkling is good, its about where she ultimately decided to place the villain in the story/world that bothers me.

Therapist: Can we please get back to your trauma.

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rebe0000

4 years ago

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rebe0000

5 years ago

Milk can trap mace irritants in your eyes

it’s best to use water. use clean water in a steady, diagonal stream from the inside of the corner (closest to your nose), blink a lot. it’s gonna hurt, but do it. you’ll cry too. that’s your eyes rinsing the irritants out. it’s just like the eye wash lecture you got in chemistry class- just keep washing and blinking and washing and blinking. Then get your clothes off ASAP, run them through the wash by themselves first, then again, then dry them

from my former correctional officer and current nurse father

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rebe0000

4 years ago

hey there LGBTQ kids who are also Christian/Jewish! If you feel like you’re disobeying God, questioning your faith, or feel wrong and dirty for loving who you love, there’s this fantastic site I found today called hoperemains that accurately and thoroughly combs through scripture and its (many) mistranslations, validates your orientation, and basically let’s you know that you’re not pissing off God. It’s insanely thorough and after reading through every page on the entire site it’s super helpful. Go check it out!

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rebe0000

4 years ago