I Want To Be Excited For The Live Action Little Mermaid So Badly

It's absolutely wild to me that girls and women are expected to wear bathing suits that look like that. That in some cases don't cover more than underwear. And when inevitably they feel uncomfortable having their whole ass and thighs out around strangers, we treat it like this is a self esteem issue that should be solved through body positivity. Maybe we should focus less on trying to force people to believe they should be comfortable exposing themselves and more on, idk.... normalizing bathing suits that allow some dignity? Male swim trunks literally go almost down to the knees. You have to go to a speciality store or order online to find a suit designed for women like that. And for that matter, even cisgender men shouldn't be expected to feel comfortable walking around shirtless in public.

If you like the standard swimsuits and enjoy wearing them, good for you. It's just absolutely wild to me that that's the default we presume everyone should be comfortable in.

So I’ve probably told this story before, but - my Gay and Lesbian Studies professor. He’s fairly elderly; he was young in the ‘60s. And he was called up for draft for the Vietnam War. And, like most everybody who was drafted for the Vietnam War, he didn’t want to be in the Vietnam War.

This is the story of how his draft went, as best as I can remember how he tells it.

“Well, son,” said the doctor assigned to do his physical. “You seem healthy from here. Is there any condition you have that would disqualify you from serving in the United States Army?”

“Yes, sir,” said my professor. “I’m gay.”

The doctor blinked at him.

Looked at the door.

Looked back.

“Do you understand what you’re telling me? Do you understand what this means?”

What this meant, in 1969, was that he would be sent home, with the information given to everyone in his hometown about exactly why he had been sent home. It meant he would be disowned by his family. It meant he could pretty much never get a job again. And this was decades before Lawrence v Texas, so it also meant he could very well get arrested.

But, you see, my professor had already been outed. And all these things had already happened.

So “yes, sir,” he said.

“Are you absolutely positive?”

“Yes, sir. My boyfriend is waiting for me outside. Would you like us to demonstrate?”

My professor did not go to Vietnam.

but it’s SO clear that visenya and rhaenys did 99% of the actual conquering and ruling and aegon was just a convenient man to be king. this is why grrm’s work is so compelling and frustrating in turns—he’s WILDLY aware of how gender and gendered violence in feudalism works, but there’s always just one element of critique missing even though he’s clearly aiming to criticize feudalism. and women keep dying in childbirth! and the princess of dorne is still unnamed! and we know more about tyrion’s missing uncle than minisa whent or joanna lannister combined!

When I say that some ATLA fans treat Iroh like the literal christian god, I'm not exaggerating. They literally act like there can be no redemption if it isn't found in him, and granted by him. Not liking Iroh means that someone must be incapable of redemption, and if Iroh doesn't approve of them that must mean that they are inherently evil. Also, someone can only be redeemed if they Follow Iroh's Ways and do everything he says.

Currently obsessed with the idea of a Jaskier’s-immortal, it’s-modern-times-now AU where some of Jaskier’s songs have survived to the modern day. They’re not like, widely sung or anything, but people know they exist. Most of them survived as scribbled lyrics but in one or two cases the music survived as well. Those get sung at ren faires by the REALLY dedicated people.

And like, some of them are barely even the same songs anymore- verses got added and changed and lost over the years, somebody added a The Moral of This Story Is verse to “Toss a Coin” like a century after Jaskier wrote it and to the horror of everyone involved, it stuck, the second verse of “Her Sweet Kiss” got lost to time aside from the first line, so everybody knows it’s supposed to be there but nobody knows what it was-

The academic debates surrounding these songs are furious and intense. People kinda know who Jaskier was, in the sense of “we know there was a bard, at about this time, named Jaskier. We know when he was born, he flits in and out of the historical record for close to a century, and we can attribute these seven songs to him.” But then you’ve got the people saying “these songs are autobiographical and we can work out the details of his life from them” vs. camp “he was clearly just making shit up,” you’ve got Shakespeare-style authorship debates (”these other ten songs were also his!” “this song is weird and bad so clearly he didn’t write it!” “this song is weird and bad and that’s probably because it’s the earliest song we have from him!” “Jaskier didn’t write his own music!”), you’ve got some historians who study witchers very politely asking if they can play with the songs for a minute-

So. Many. Theses. Have been written about “Her Sweet Kiss,” with subjects ranging from “how many people is this song about, actually? Two? three? four?” to “who were these people to each other” to “can we pin down specific historical figures for these people” 

Meanwhile Jaskier’s a super obscure indie musician who occasionally tweets things like “The subject of whether or not I am gay is the subject of much scholarly debate. This isn’t just invasive, it’s stupid, if you’ve heard any of my songs you know I’m bi” and has REALLY STRONG OPINIONS on what those obscure, seven-century old ballads are about.

He sings “Her Sweet Kiss” at some open mic night and everybody’s like “Oh, that’s cool, you made up a second verse” while he grumbles under his breath that he made up the first verse, too, but nobody ever gives him credit for it these days

dustin when mike improvs the tiniest thing in existence as a weapon in self defence against his new pet: DON'T HURT HIM!!!

dustin when steve improvs an oar as a weapon in self defence against his new friend: don't worry! steve'll get him with his oar :)

it's not even that dustin didn't think eddie was a threat while dart was cause he thought dart was his little meow meow at that point. he thought it was unnecessary both times. he just respects mike more when he's in Protection Mode. although i do think he learned not to mock steve pretty quick after the "almost got his throat slit immediately after being mocked for being cautious" incident cause steve grabbed that lamp at the school and there wasn't a WORD said about it (even after "I COULD'VE TAKEN YOU OUT WITH THIS LAMP")

not to be a sap or anything but this particular piece of little mermaid trivia does something to me

I recently encountered our elderly neighbour's granddaughter(?) in the elevator, and learned that she's one of those people who refer to a dog as "hän". I started thinking about pronouns. While a lot of western european languages have gendered pronouns, finnish just doesn't do that. Written finnish has two separate pronouns, "hän" - he/she/they for humans and any being that can be considered a person, and "se" - "it" for objects and animals. Many finns who are awkward with the english rules startle people by referring to a beloved pet as "it", because they don't quite notice the difference in tone that it has in english - that's what they've learned in school is the pronoun for animals in written finnish, so they apply the same principle.

So while this is how it works in written finnish, very few dialects of spoken finnish actually regularly use "hän", as it comes off as far too formal, and refer to people regardless of who they are as "it". The pronoun "hän" is too formal, to the point that people don't even use it to refer to anyone as a sign of respect unless they're being sarcastically over-polite - much like one would sarcastically curtsy or bow at a person of authority they have absolutely zero respect for. As a matter of fact I've only ever seen the two gestures done in the same context. Finns can be slavishly obedient but they don't bow for anyone.

The only other context I've heard "hän" being used in a normal conversation are religious people referring to god, as a sign of reverence. God is never "it", even in the same sentence where your own mother is. And the other one is for beloved pets. Cats, however, do sometimes get the double-context, being sarcastically referred with the honorary pronoun while also being a pet. Everyone knows you're talking about a cat if you're saying something like "Hänelle ei nyt uusi hiekka kelvannut niin Hän päätti paskantaa lattialle" - "She was displeased with the new kitty litter so She decided to shit on the floor."