On the hair thing... When I was a kid, I lived in Pakistan for a year. I have extremely blond hair; this is unusual in Pakistan. I frequently had to field requests to touch my hair, and because I was a kid, and kids really aren't expected to have anything like bodily autonomy in America, or Pakistan, or anywhere else, I was expected to be polite about it. So I was. But it made me feel weird, and uncomfortable. So you know what? Someone tells me that they're constantly fielding requests to let strangers touch their hair and they don't like it? I believe them. They don't need to have a special, spiritual connection to their hair. They don't even have to ask me. I don't put my hands on strangers without asking, and I don't ask strangers to let me treat them like a museum exhibit, or an animal in a zoo.
A mini project done on Lakota Identity with some fellow students at Oglala Lakota College.
Project conceived by Elaine Yellow Horse (second photo). Photographs/editing by me (doyoumisterjones). Additional help by Anna Takes Shield (last photo.)
Because I’ve seen other people expressing confusion about this, I figured I should attach my answer to this ask:
Wonderful information on Lakota hair and protocol. Thank you for sharing.
Reminder that s**aw is an extremely harmful slur against Native women, do NOT use this term if you are not Native American.
-Chantel
Holy shit, the tipi thing. ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
Hell, the call center I work in mostly services New York; they’ll ask white people from here if they live in one, because, I think, they’re still half-convinced that Native Americans only exist in movies and we’re still in the old West or something.
(Not Lakota- Oklahoma Cherokee, but yeah, I’ve had the joy of encountering most of these.)
So obviously Captain Phasma knows Finn’s serial number, but according to the Visual Guide, she makes sure to memorize the serial numbers of ALL the stormtroopers under her command. Every other imperial soldier/officer just seems to say “you there” or barely acknowledge their presence, but here’s their BOSS referring to them by the closest thing they’ve got to a name. She GIVES them an identity, and refers to them as an individual.
Also, apparently the reason she doesn’t hang out in the control room with Hux and Ren is because she voluntarily takes patrols of the base. She doesn’t think she’s above normal duties - she feels what her men do is important and helps out, too.
And think back to when Solo and Finn have her captured. She shows utmost faith in her men - those same stormtroopers everybody laughs about how useless they are - she BELIEVES in them. “You can’t possibly be so stupid as to think this will be easy. My troops will storm this block and kill you all.” She’s pissed. But she has such faith in her men that she TURNS OFF the shield JUST so they’ll know where to come. She doesn’t hesitate! She KNOWS they can do this!
Listen I’m not saying she’s the kind of boss that has memorized every trooper’s birthday, but MAYBE cupcakes just MYSTERIOUSLY SHOW UP in the break room on those days.
@swagaliciousgoose, this explains a pretty good reason as to why Phasma turned off the shield so easily
Also, that’s why she relented so easily without a fight. In addition to calculating the risk to her own life, she was struck by the sheer betrayal of one of his own guys. Guys she CARED about, and even one of the MOST PROMISING young stormtrooper she had.
She’d had such hope for FN-2187. He had shown such remarkable promise. He had shown the capacity to be special.
(From “Before the Awakening”)
Put yourself in her shoes for awhile and consider: What would your reaction be?
God I hope we get all this complexity in the next movie.
Getting to physically hold my cosplay variant cover for the first time. I’m overwhelmed with emotions. To everyone who ever cheered me on, thank you. To everyone who ever felt discouraged by bullies, told that their features were ‘too Black’ to cosplay, don’t give up. Don’t you ever let them make you feel like you’re not good enough. You’re beautiful and you can do anything. We can be heroes too.
One of my favorite cosplayers, congratulations!
This is amazing!! Congratulations and please never feel too Black to cosplay.
For when you absolutely, positively need a kitten to magically appear instantly. This is an incomplete list.
1. Close an interior door.
2. Open an exterior door.
3. Use the toilet.
4. Run a bath.
5. Type on a keyboard.
6. Clean the catbox. (They will immediately poo in it)
7. Feed the dog.
8. Feed the other cat.
9. Feed yourself.
10. Click the button that activates the laser pointer.
11. Try to take a nap.
12. Have the adult cat try to take a nap.
13. Indeed, have the adult cat try to do anything, because the kittens are convinced that the adult cat really just wants to play with them every waking hour of the day, which I assure you, is an opinion at wide variance to adult cat’s own.
Don’t ever say we’re not committed to history. The brave team at our National Museum of American History put a bunch of gelatin-heavy 1930s recipes to the test at a recent staff potluck.
The consensus: pretty, but not necessarily fit to eat.
And what exactly is a “surprise loaf,” you ask?
Three tiers of bread separated by layers of a coleslaw-like mixture and relish, covered with (we can’t make this up) a whipped combo of cheddar and cream cheese.
there’s a really interesting article here that goes into some of the factors that led to these jello-y loaf-y vintage foods that are so very mystifying(ly disgusting) to our modern eyes.
it talks about how advances in gelatin technology turned what had been a luxury food for the very wealthy (aspics!) into something the middle class could afford, and how shipping and food preservation were in such a different place that folks just didn’t have access to fresh ingredients most of the time. but i think the best point it makes is: this is what happens when cooking is compulsory for generations of wives and mothers, whether or not they have any interest in it.
(i say this as someone whose grandmas, while both lovely people, were extraordinarily poor cooks. legendarily bad at it. my mom and dad can each remember a watershed moment where they went to someone else’s house for dinner and ate the home-made food and went ‘wait this TASTES GOOD???? HOW???’ in both cases, the dish was pasta with tomato sauce. in both cases, they were older than 17 at the time.)
if you hate cooking, and you have to do it every night, dinner becomes a game of ‘how can i do this conveniently as possible’ or like ‘at least this will look pretty when company comes’
so like. gross vintage foods? time for another round of ‘blame that fuckin’ patriarchy!’
chewie is actually a 7 foot tall nb jewish lesbian like whos gonna stop me what are you a cop
the millennium falcon is hans shitty station wagon. initially only he calls it the millennium falcon but then everyone comes around bc he drives them all to school every day
the falcon breaks down like twice a week and luke helps han work on it
its fucking. rural idaho in the late 90s or something
luke and leia already know theyre siblings
vader is the asshole history teacher they pretend theyre not related to
wedge = lukes 8th grade bff who moved to a different town so now they can only communicate via The Interwebs because vader gets mad if anybody uses the phone for too long
i dont want to discount the force entirely so luke and leia are just?? psychics? luke is a natural empath and leia moves stuff around w her brain but theyre both not trained @ all and get overwhelmed. they try to train together but they dont get a real handle of their powers until they meet obi wan and yoda who are like the weird dance and pottery teacher respectively
han doesnt believe theyre psychic for a long time but chewie is making tin foil hats for her and han just in case
R2-D2 and C3-P0 are luke and leias dogs or something
lando used to be part of hans crew but he got elected to student government so now theres some tension
also they used to date
luke is very relieved when he finds out about it but hes not sure why because he doesnt know hes trans yet and is really confused about why a straight girl would be relieved that the boy she has a crush on has dated dudes
palpatine = transphobic school principal
jabbas gang = rival group of miscreant teens from the other high school across town
lukes first short haircut is a group activity. leia isnt there to supervise and han is handling the scissors and hes afraid of fucking it up so hes cutting off like a 16th of an inch at a time and lukes hair is really long before they cut it so it takes forever and chewie is trying not to have an anxiety attack
wookiee sounds = tina belcher moans
han is also jewish + luke & leia are jewish bc padme was but they arent practicing
“rey is a mary sue” buddy she’s just following the hero archetype.
star wars isn’t a dramatic character study with complex, nuanced personalities. and i don’t mean that in an insulting way? that’s just the sort of story it is. it’s a modern myth. the characters are all archetypes. it follows a young hero on a journey, it explores light and dark and the bonds of family and friendship.
rey’s the kind of hero archetype where you’re supposed to put yourself in her shoes and see yourself in her, like luke. but if you refuse to do that, because she’s a woman, then that’s all you’re going to see of her?
idk take off your whiny chump goggles and just enjoy the damn movie
You just described a lot of aspects of a mary stu….
Some advice from one burgeoning writer to another: ditch the term “Mary Sue.” It’s limiting and unprofessional. If you think a character is bad, examine WHY they’re bad–do they react to their surroundings unrealistically? Do they ever grow or develop in any way from the beginning to the end? Do they fit with the intended ‘feel’ of the story, or do they feel out of place, being too caricaturish?
It isn’t a bad thing to have the hero of your story be someone the viewer can see themself in while watching. That’s how they get invested in the storyline. That’s why video games like Bioshock and Half Life give us entirely silent, blank slate protagonists–so we fill their shoes and explore the world just as they do. It’s a method of immersion. It makes you care about them, because you see yourself in them. That’s the kind of protagonist Luke was, and that’s the kind of protagonist Rey is intended to be.
Don’t rely on the term Mary Sue to bypass this level of critique. It’s just going to make it difficult to write characters of your own, because you’ll be terrified of falling into the trap of what’s ultimately a sexist and meaningless buzzword.
I keep seeing this one post get more and more elaborate about “I don’t like the headcanons abt Poe being a good cook, what if he’s terrible, what if his food is burnt and bland and flavorless and the resistance food is too spicy for poor Rey or Finn who are used to nutripaste and powdered bread?! and they can only eat Poe’s terrible cooking?!”
and I’m just sitting here shaking my head like
none of you are latinx
none of you understand how wrong you are
THANKYOU
Poe goddamn knows how to cook a meal and he goddamn knows his way around a spice cabinet and you’d better believe he knows how to marinate and slow-cook and he might make less spicy stuff for his new friends but only because he loves them and he knows they don’t have the palate for actually spicy food.
Okay but what if he got too excited about his cool new friends and accidentally made the food way too spicy?
Finn is aghast. ‘You put what in the food?!! The First Order uses chemical weapons based on that kind of stuff for crowd control! And you EAT it? Willingly!?!?’ (He keeps taking bites in between sputtered protests and hastily chugging whatever liquid is available though)
Rey on the other hand, is absolutely stuffing her face because it’s literally the best thing she’s ever tasted (Although Poe could have served up literally anything and it would have tasted amazing just because someone made it for her) and there are tears streaming down her face, partly because her mouth feels like it’s on fire but mostly because this is the happiest she’s ever been.
Star Wars has blue milk, maybe it has blue horchata they can drink to cool off their tongues between bites of space chorizo
I have some kind of feelings like–this is why we have protagonists. This right here. Like institutions inevitably crust over with distrust and violence and what we need protagonists for is to be one person, who
have the
hope and trust
courage
and wild, vast empathy and to throw down their weapons
I still have issues with Vader’s redemption, I never won’t, & Luke was never entirely my favourite…
But there’s something about this, yeah.
And that middle comment, too, I liked this post to reblog later, BEFORE I saw Star Wars:TFA, & it resonated with me then, but even more so now.
Because this is why we have protagonists, & what I love the most of the new Trio is the way they effortlessly blend the strengths of Han, Leia, & Luke, while also being wholly fresh & wholly new people on their own.
& it’s easy to see Rey as The Luke, wholesale, & there is something of this in her, when she looks into Kylo Ren & see his sad & grasping soul, the empathy there…
But there is something of this in Poe, too, to be able to see a Stormtrooper as a person, a man behind the mask, to give him a name & a jacket & allyship & friendship & everything that he did…
And most of all, though, that line about having the hope & courage to throw down their weapons, to choose to be the single person who acted differently, in that little village on Jakku…
Well.
That’s pure Finn, isn’t it?
Too… This, for Luke, was the culmination of his arc, these three are just beginning.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is now the highest-grossing film in U.S. history. In just 20 days, it’s surpassed the $760.5 million James Cameron’s Avatar grossed in 34 weeks, but now it sets its sights on the seemingly insurmountable $2.79 billion international gross of Avatar. As of January 4, it had made $1.54 billion, but its release in China isn’t until January 9.
Even when pharmacists do let people access contraception, whether emergency contraception or condoms or prescription birth control pills, the process isn’t always free of judgment. In a series of recent online discussions, people across the country have begun to share stories of the stigma they’ve experienced. As many have pointed out, this can be especially damaging to teens.
DO YOU SEE THIS? PHARMACY EMPLOYEES IN THE U.S. ARE NOT LEGALLY ALLOWED TO DO THIS. THAT GOES FOR THE PEOPLE AT THE FRONT AS WELL AS PEOPLE IN WHITE COATS BEHIND THE CAGE.
If an employee in a pharmacy makes a snide comment - Front store workers, pharmacists, or Pharmacy Techs give you shit? Gently (Or not so gently) remind them that the waiver they signed upon being hired legally binds them from commenting on your purchase, as it is a violation of privacy laws. Doing so is grounds for INSTANT termination and hefty fines.
Pharmacy workers (white coats) are legally obligated to ASK if you need an explanation of how medication works and any side effects, any medication conflicts etc. If you decline, THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED AT ALL TO MAKE SNIDE REMARKS OR FARTHER COMMENT ON YOUR PURCHASE. FRONT STORE EMPLOYEES CAN NOT AT ALL COMMENT IN ANY WAY, IN ANY STORE WITH A PHARMACY IN IT.
Know your rights. If this shit happens? Call them the fuck out and ask to speak to a manager. Get worked up. Cause a scene. Threaten a Lawsuit. If you see this happening to someone else, and they seem to be struggling, speak up for them.
As a Pharmacy worker, you bet your ass I’ll protect you and your privacy. IT’S MY JOB.
When you’re told to evacuate because the Galactic Empire just took over your city, you only have time to grab the essentials.
God, this guy is one of my favorite ridiculous EU characters along with Elan Sleazebaggano.
He was basically just a random extra with an ice cream maker, but they gave him an entire in-depth backstory about how he was a member of the Rebellion and that ice cream maker contained a lot of vital data and basically he single-handedly saved the Rebellion that day.
And you just KNOW there's that one asshat, who finds "his" droid in Poe's flock, and goes to start something, but Poe shuts him down with one "you know what you did" look.
Poe is just so nice to BB-8 that I imagine he’s like that to all droids. And you know BB-8 always talks him up to the other droids too, like “I have the best Master! He is good and kind and mine!”
Imagine the droids deciding to investigate and finding that they like this human, that he is Good and he is Friend. And eventually, Poe has this huge line of droids following him around like a mother duckling. You never have to look for Poe anymore; you just have to follow the beeping and chirping of a tiny army of droids, and there he is.
