Snob

Illustrations by Madison Griffiths.

Every morning, my mom would walk.

Her stride was brisk. Ten laps around the local running track. Our dogs would often lazily collapse in the wet grass and watch her pace, panting contentedly. Once she was done, she'd continue on, walking to the office where she worked, her forehead thick with sweat. And throughout the day, she'd carry on sweating because every morning—before her walk—she'd encase her body in plastic wrap. She would leave it on all day, hidden under her clothes. The plentiful layers would draw out the water weight she so detested.

Come evening, she was a miserable, hungry heap of exhaustion—a fragile woman chewing on the collar of her jacket in front of the television. Her daily diet consisted of a watermelon Gatorade, a packet of soup, and a section of Vegemite toast she'd cut into quarters every morning. I'd usually find the other three sections strewn into the trash.

My mom has always been thin, sporting fine long limbs and razor sharp cheekbones. Illness aside, I've always found something particularly striking about her appearance. In the few framed photographs of her wedding scattered around our family home, she's a delicate 24-year-old vision, lost in a sea of pixelated white. When she married my father—an athlete at the time—he was spending his days sitting in saunas, fasting, and hungrily lusting over anything other than celery.

She lived on a diet of cereal and the occasional Mars Bar while teaching an unhealthy number of aerobics classes at the local gym. It shouldn't have been any surprise when she had a heart attack in her early 20s. Her frail body couldn't handle the pressure.

My mother has always taken a keen interest in other people with eating disorders. Friends of mine who've fallen victim have become particularly close with her. But it would never last. If, at any stage, they started looking thinner than her, she hastily began to ignore them.

Growing up, the channel we'd watch the weather on depended on how hollow-cheeked the weather lady was. The more stomach, the better. My mom once even told my father to ask one of his employees to take leave until she started gaining more weight. She felt terrorized by the competition that existed in the workplace.

When I started losing weight, my mom was the first to notice. She was happy, so long as I stayed anywhere between 119 and 125 pounds. Any smaller, and I was venturing onto her turf. Any larger, and I was astoundingly displeasing to look at.

It was as if my disinterest in food threatened hers. When living under the same roof, there could only be one winner, and this was a game she had perfected for more than 30 years. She'd open packets of chips, place them next to me, and leave the room. I would politely decline them, place them next to her, and walk away. The first to eat a chip was the weakest. When I ate out without her, I binged. I binged relentlessly. I ate whatever I could get my hands on, perhaps as some strange, sick form of rebellion.

Just before I moved out of home, I started seeing a doctor to monitor my weight and my attitude. But still I'd take photographs of my body in front of different mirrors and study them obsessively. My reflection always looked skinnier in the mirror in my bathroom than it did in my mother's wardrobe. Under the stark lighting in there, I was a pale image of stretch marks and bulging lumps.

So I'd play games with myself. If I ate breakfast one day, I wasn't allowed to eat until lunch the next, and then dinner the following. If I broke this cycle, that was fine; it just meant I'd have to purge. With swollen cheeks, I feared blood on my toothbrush. It never felt as if I got "everything" out.

The scales in my mother's bathroom revealed a weight 13 pounds heavier than those in my doctor's office—and those thirteen pounds made all the difference. No matter how dire my doctor's assessments of my health got, Mom's scales were always the ones telling the truth.

For a long time, I tried to be my mom's carer. My mom's mother, if you will. I chased referrals up and tearfully called the doctor's practice she visited regularly, insisting that she was lying about her disease. I wanted to tell them no, you idiots, she isn't suffering from "recent, unexpected weight loss" as a result of an "unidentified cause." She was sharing a bed with a ghastly disorder whispering deadly advice into her ears. One that had been there for three-quarters of her life.

But they were acquainted with a polite, timid woman. They couldn't see the vision of varicose veins who was too frail to even close her car door.

Every so often, when my mom feels particularly weak or controlled by her condition, she'll mutter, "I know I have a problem." It's no secret among our family. She'll say she wishes she had a desire to eat more, to eat at all. Her female friends will make insensitive remarks at her expense. Usually about how "lucky" she is that she remains thin in her mature years. It makes my head spin.

It's impossible to not become frustrated by her illness at times. It frightens me so deeply, and I love her more than anything. I just want her to be OK.

She still mashes up the food I've prepared for her so it's a baffling mixture of indistinguishable color and texture on her plate and pretend to chew. Sometimes, after just two mouthfuls of daal, she'll run to the bathroom with a "sudden desire to vomit."

What's hard to admit though is how often I adopt her tendencies. It's normalized: the calorie-counting notepads, hiding pieces of tofu under salad leaves, scraping food off my plate before anybody has the opportunity to question what has or has not been swallowed.

I've inherited my mother's fear of food, her shame and sadness. I envy her protruding ankles and bone structure. It's important to remind myself that this isn't what defines her—this is her illness. But her illness has developed a personality so real and so undeniably powerful that at times it's sometimes impossible to distinguish the two sometimes.

Just last weekend, in a tight dress, I exclaimed, "I look awful; you can see my bulging stomach." She put her arm around me in a comforting fashion and smiled. "You really are my daughter," she said, laughing.

El pasado viernes 12 de agosto de 2016 se celebró la Décima Segunda Edición de la Fiesta Mexicana de Avión, una celebración en la que Chilam Balam estuvo presente con tacos al pastor, gringas y postres típicos mexicanos, como la tarta de Tres Leches y el Pastel de Elote.

El cartel y material visual de la Fiesta fue la lucha libre mexicana. De esta forma, la imagen gráfica tuvo como protagonista la máscara de Huracán Ramírez, uno de los cinco grandes luchadores de toda la historia y que, en 2016, cumple 10 años de su fallecimiento.

El Mariachi Michoacán y el Mariachi de Leonardo Flores fueron los encargados de hacernos bailar y cantar los clásicos de la música ranchera. Para los peques, hubo piñatas de luchadores (Blue Demon, Santo…) y una zona infantil con hinchables y actividades varias.

Otra de las novedades de la Fiesta Mexicana de Avión 2016, fue la presencia de un nuevo restaurante. Se trata de “El Mexicano Taco Bar”, de A Coruña, quién complementó la oferta gastronómica que ya ofrecíamos el Chilam Balam (Vigo), el Rincón Azteca (O Carballiño) y el Mesón Mexicano (Tourón, Pontevedra).

Te invitamos a que, a través de su Facebook, veas las fotos y la información básica de la Fiesta Mexicana de Avión 2016, dónde puedes encontrar fotografías y vídeos como éste, en el que se resume la fiesta:

 

La entrada La Fiesta Mexicana de Avión fue todo un éxito, en su edición 2016. aparece primero en Chilam Balam.

The artist behind the tumblr blog In-Progress Pokemon sets out to show what would happen if the world's most collectible monsters went through metamorphosis like real animals instead of the fantasitical display of light and magic that happens in the games. Without that distraction you have to start thinking of those awkward in-between stages that makes puberty just so devastating, and for some creatures it takes a lot of imagination to make two disparate designs flow together. What's really neat is how they take the extra steps to make sure that even the poses from the original art lead naturally from one another.

If there's a Pokemon that you want to see get this evolutionary upgrade, the artist does take commissions. Be sure to follow the blog on tumblr to get all the updates as they come out.

1. Here's the Gen I Starters

2. Snorunt's VERY divergent evolutions, Glalie and Froslass

  
 

 

3. Psyduck's transformation from cute to brute

 

4. Umbreon, Espeon, and Sylveon

 

5. How to make a Dragonite in 5 easy steps:

6. Marill's life-cycle is fascinating, also can I still call it "Pikablu"?

 

7. Tyranitaurs are kind of gross now that I think of it

 

8. I HERD U LIEK MUDKIPZ FROM A VERY OLD MEME

 

9. The Original GHOSTLY TRIO

10. Mr. Mascot himself, Pikachu!

 

11. Slowpoke, Slowbro, and Slowking

 

12. Sunkern and Exeggute are hardcore AF 

 

see more "In-Progress Pokemon" at their creator's blog

We know that all animals — or at least all animals that we’ve been able to study — sleep. And we we also know what happens when we don’t sleep — we become irritable, see our overall health suffer, hallucinate, have seizures, and eventually die. So in a very literal...More »

Many people, including us, have lamented why the world still doesn’t havemale birth control. A new Atlantic story looks at the history of the effort including arguments that we don’t have a male pill because pharmaceutical companies don’t think it would make money and a concern that men wouldn’t be...More »

Frank Cho, who you may know from his “sexy cover art” antics on Spider-Gwen (and more), has walked off of working on a series of Wonder Woman variant covers. Earlier this year, he was commissioned to create a series of 24 variant covers for the new Wonder Woman comic written by Greg Rucka. Cho only made it about six covers in before walking off, citing “censorship” and “political agendas.” In a statement to Bleeding Cool, Cho wrote:

All the problem lies with Greg Rucka.

EVERYONE loves my Wonder Woman covers and wants me to stay. Greg Rucka is the ONLY one who has any problem with covers. Greg Rucka has been trying to alter and censor my artwork since day one.

Greg Rucka thought my Wonder Woman #3 cover was vulgar and showed too much skin, and has been spearheading censorship, which is baffling since my Wonder Woman image is on model and shows the same amount of skin as the interior art, and it’s a VARIANT COVER and he should have no editorial control over it. (But he does. WTF?!!!)

I tried to play nice, not rock the boat and do my best on the covers, but Greg’s weird political agenda against me and my art has made that job impossible. Wonder Woman was the ONLY reason I came over to DC Comics.

To DC’s credit, especially [Art Director] Mark Chiarello, they have been very accommodating. But they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

I just wanted to be left alone and do my Wonder Woman variant covers in peace. But Greg Rucka is in a hostile power trip and causing unnecessary friction over variant covers.

Cho’s no stranger to cover art controversy—as stated earlier, he’s been at the center of more than a few firestorms regarding the overtly sexualized covers that he draws of female comic book heroes. In one particularly egregious example, his “sexy cover” of Spider-Gwen is especially skeezy because, well, she’s a teenager, but there she is, sexualized anyway.

That aside, Cho’s drawn more than a few other cheesecake pieces, some of which feel like very pointed jabs at folks who “overreact” to such pieces. The Wonder Woman art in question hasn’t been released, and after this controversy, it doesn’t seem likely that it will be.

We’ve reached out to Cho and Rucka for comments, and will update as necessary.

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

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The writers behind Reductress have a new book hitting stores this October. Titled How to Win at Feminism: The Definitive Guide to Having It All—And Then Some!, it’s available on Tuesday, October 25th. Here’s what you can expect from the book: Feminism is all about demanding equality and learning to love yourself. But not too […]

Welcome to the second installment of “Sexism & Season 6,” which focuses on tackling the horrifyingly common misconception that Game of Thrones (GoT) is somehow a feminist’s dream. Or even a remotely progressive narrative. That showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, along with their writing team (all referred to under the monolithic “D&D”) somehow “fixed” their “woman problem” this year, the problem that had been plaguing the HBO Series basically since its inception.

See, there’s this vague sort of consensus that women had their way this year!

The “dames of Thrones” were boss ass individuals who did not put up with those foolish men, and often as a result, found themselves in positions of power. Ellaria murdered Doran the “weak man” with the backing of all of Dorne, Daenerys and Yara made a queenly alliance centered on the promise that they’d rid the world of idiot dudes who don’t think women should rule, and Sansa actually found recourse against her rapist by murdering him.

Yara: We’d like you to help us murder an uncle or two who don’t think a woman’s fit to rule.

Daenerys: Reasonable.

Reasonable.

Then add to that the wonderfully intelligent Tyrell ladies, the wonderfully sassy Tarly ladies, and the wonderfully badass fighters in characters like Arya and Brienne. With all these strong female characters battlin’ the patriarchy, it seems like GoT’s “Women on Top!” marketing campaign was quite on the nose!

Except if you think about any of it for more than two seconds.

I already spoke in Part 1 of this essay series about how D&D’s setting has no sort of internal consistency and simply adapts to the needs of a scene. For that reason, there’s no way women (or anyone) can truly triumph and find themselves “on top,” since what they’re on top of is utterly meaningless. These are hollow victories, and frankly the focus that it’s now “women on top” comes across as nothing more than pandering, given the completely superficial exploration of gender dynamics this series offers.

In this section, however, I would like to focus on the actual scripting of the female characters. Because even if we pretend, just for a second, that their achieving power does have feminist takeaways beyond seal-clapping at their shiny crowns, it doesn’t change that the way they’re penned is strikingly sexist.

I’d say “surprisingly,” but I’ve also been saying this since before Season 6 began:

I don’t really want to shock anyone, but these multitudes of “strong women” simply don’t exist.

In the linked essay, I brought special attention to the characters of Dany, Brienne, Sansa, Margaery, and Myranda’s, and how through the past year, their scripting was not only not empowering, but quite offensive. And this was all after I painstakingly went through all of Season 5 to detail the primary sexist tropes D&D employed in the writing of all their characters.

Now this is not to say it couldn’t have gotten better in Season 6, of course. I’m just here to explain to you why it didn’t.

I think I’ll open with Dany, because “Khaleesi” is the face of female empowerment in modern media, isn’t she? I mean she’s a queen with dragons who hates slavery; how awesome is that?!

Not that I’m defending slavery, of course.

Dany this year was interesting, because she sort of had a two chapter journey, if you will. The first chapter involved her navigating her captivity by the Dothraki, whereas the second chapter involved her return to Meereen to handle the situation with the slavers and make plans for the future.

This is where it becomes difficult not to retread ground with Part 1, because the utterly contrived nature of how the Dothraki treated her is part and parcel of the mystifying way in which she navigated it. But we just have to accept certain things, most importantly including the Dosh Khaleen’s magically disappearing authority within Vaes Dothrak.

I’m quite certain D&D meant for us to find Dany rattling off her titles to the khal in “The Red Woman” to be an empowering moment. After all, he was telling her that he’d rape her, and she had an ace in her pocket about why she wouldn’t. Except that…why didn’t she say this at the get-go? Does she live for the rush of high risk situations? I’m not trying to say that a character withholding information that would benefit her is definitive proof that the scripting is sexist, but what I am saying is that it betrays entirely a lack of care about the characters, and it’s all in favor of creating false tension and cheap moments of victory. In other words, it’s this facade of “women on top” when what we should be questioning is why she was on the bottom in the first place.

There’s also the issue of characters deciding to do everything off-screen. Yes, this allows for “reveals,” but when absolutely nothing is seeded to preserve the shock, what follows feels random. How are we supposed to have any grasp on a character when we don’t see them struggling or planning? Dany fell further victim to this in “Book of the Stranger,” the episode where she decided to burn down Vaes Dothrak. For profit. When did she formulate this plan? During her pee break with the other former khaleesi who seemed to like the idea of avoiding rape? Did Dany know that the Council of Khals (the suddenly existing legislative body of Vaes Dothrak) would decide her fate at night, that there’d be braziers in this tent, and that the dirt would be magically flammable?

The point I’m making is that her Empowered Moment falls apart with a minimal level of scrutiny. And even if we somehow manage to ignore the multitude of contrivances required for it to take place, there’s the problem of take-away. If the Council of Khals was supposed to make us feel as though this was Dany’s only way out, that was completely undercut by Daario and Jorah showing up and offering her escape in the scene prior. If we were supposed to believe that this was the “best course of action” because the khals were such a danger to her, then why were there no threats against Dany (and it seemed like they were going to allow her to join the Dosh Khaleen, the supposed ruling class of the Dothraki) until after she started insulting the khals by saying they were weak and only she was fit to rule

The only conclusion I can reasonably come to is that we were supposed to fist-pump for Dany’s actions because Dothraki culture is gross and rapey and this is the best course of action for *humanity*. So therefore D&D’s idea of female empowerment is a white woman, with a family history tied to slavery and conquest, standing proudly after destroying another culture’s holy place, while the brown people who had outright called her a “witch” dropped to their knees. I hate strawman rapists as much as the next person, but there were people who actually felt…good…about this?

Sorry, but white feminism is not empowering. Or feminism.

You know what else isn’t empowering? Having a female character whose only good ideas come from a dude. This was a trend with Dany that started last year, and boy howdy did it continue into Season 6. The second she got back to Meereen, she began formulating ideas involving mass murder, and what a good thing for all of us that Tyrion was there to talk some sense into her. So then the entire Battle of Meereen scenario was the enactment of his plan on how to handle the slavers, and let’s not forget, he’s the one who fixed her mistake of locking up Rhaegal and Viseron so that they could help lead her victory as well.

Then Tyrion tells Dany to dump Daario and she does (though empowerdly not having emotions about it, because emotions are so weak). And of course when she and Yara, two women in positions of power, hash out terms of an alliance, we’re treated to this moment:

Oh well, at least Yara listens to her dudes as well:

And yes, people listening to advisors is fine, but it’s the pattern. A pattern which in the case of Dany, is completely infantilizing. I guess the best that could be said is that without her men, she’d have still won the loyalty of the Dothraki this year? But then we have to remember why it is that people who just saw their holy place get burned down by a witch would pledge their loyalty in the first place…

There’s one last thing about Dany’s scripting that I think is a bit of an elephant in the room, because it involves dreaded *book knowledge*. I’m all for ending the conflation of GoT and A Song of Ice and Fire, but it’s rather impossible for me not to notice that Tyrion’s plotline this year was Dany’s plotline from “A Dance with Dragons.” Like, they jettisoned her out of her own arc, and literally retconned developments away so that Tyrion could have her ADWD plot-points to tackle. Hizdahr’s deal with Yunkai and Astapor? Gone. The navy Daario won for Dany? Oh no, a random fire! Granted, everything he did doesn’t quite line up to the books since the show presents us with a ridiculously simplified situation, but it really does feel as though a woman was shoved aside and put in a position to be a prisoner of strawmen so that they could carry out her plotline with their preferred protagonist, a white dude.

Yikes, I had more to say about Dany than I realized. I guess it’s just all that empowerment! But I do think it’s an important exercise to demonstrate how just because a woman wins victories and is a ruler in her own right, it’s not automatically progressive.

Same goes for this idea that if a woman is badass, then that’s that—it’s a feminist victory!

Arya is really the perfect example of that this season. Granted, her plotline actually came under major scrutiny when her plot armor rivaled that of James Bond’s in Live and Let Die. I do have to think the sheer ridiculousness of her survival detracted a little from her “badass” status, though aside from these complaints and perhaps a few grumbles about her season finale teleportation, I’ve heard little criticism levied at her scripting.

Arya in and of herself I think is supposed to be a slightly disturbing character, right? Like, her overly violent murders of Trant last year and Walder Frey this year were supposed to be at least a little morally ambiguous? It’s hard to tell, because D&D went out of their way to paint both men as incredibly disgusting and “bad,” but I just don’t think I can imagine anyone who would be able to write or direct those scenes with the intent of them being 100% fine, fist-pumping moments of awesome.

Okay…maybe two or three names spring to mind.

However, the curious thing about Arya is that other than when she pops up to carry out these grisly executions, she’s actually quite passive. This was the case last year, and certainly continuing into this year, where a good chunk of her episodes revolved around being smacked with a stick. Even after she got her eyes back, we see more stick smacking. Then she was assigned to kill an actor and was so bad at her job that her mark ended up noticing her and they developed a friendly rapport. The one proactive decision Arya made was to not kill Lady Crane, which like, okay, I could totally buy doing that not jiving with her moral code, I guess. And then the plot required her to be stupid and go from sleeping with Needle drawn to smirking her way around Braavos:

The rest was simply parkouring to victory.

Even despite her very passive scripting, all if this might have been somewhat forgiven if it weren’t for D&D’s mystifying pattern of injecting catty women into every corner of Braavos. I’ve explained the sexist underpinnings of this trope before:

[“Women are Catty”] is based on the assumption that women are always in competition with one another, because their mode of operation is based around getting a man. With intimate heterosexuality being needed to complete them, exclusive male attention becomes their ultimate goal, inherently pitting them against other women who are vying for the same thing. If a man strays from his woman, it is her fault, because she lost out to another woman. And of course, women are not mature enough to snap out of this dynamic, unlike “bros before hoes.”

In my opinion, there’s really no way to reconcile the character of “The Waif” in GoT. What is her problem?! The best explanation is that she has a thing for Jaqen and feels threatened, but this is a woman who simply hates Arya. She smacks her with sticks repeatedly, and the one time Arya counters her blow, angry tears fill her eyes. Then we learn after Arya bails on her contract that The Waif had asked Jaqen for special permission to murder her in the case of such an event. And wow, does she skip off to do so with glee:

Maybe this wouldn’t have seemed quite so awful if it weren’t for the fact that Jaqen is presented to us as the voice of reason between the two? He’s the one who brings Arya back to the temple, he’s the one who grants her the eyes, he’s the one who gives her another chance, he’s even the one who after the killy-conclusion of their confrontation, gives Arya a bizarre Nod of Approval. Fighting is for the women, reconciliation is for the men.

Add to this the weird rivalry within the theater troupe, where the Sansa actor was very clearly the one who hired the Faceless Men to kill Lady Crane because jealousy, and Lady Crane in turn mutilated her.

What makes this worse is that I almost was won over by the positive interaction with Lady Crane and Arya because that’s how lacking it is on this show, but it was unfortunately overshadowed by Crane’s disturbing trait of stabbing ex-lovers and then, of course, her graphic Shock™ death, demonstrating that positive female interaction on this show is only to tug at the heartstrings.

But whatever, we can tell Arya is a badass because she pops in to murder people in season finales with inexplicably honed skills that we were never shown before. What were we shown instead?

Brienne is another character that you can tell is meant to be a Certifiable Badass because she like, carries a sword or something? And it was nifty of her to save Sansa and Theon from the disappearing hounds when she magically realized that they must have left Winterfell.

However past that, we were treated to another season of her failing at her mission. What was the point of her going to Riverrun, exactly? For a fanservice moment with Jaime that was immediately followed by the scene of him declaring his undying love to Cersei? Brienne failed to secure the Tully army, and failed to even convince Brynden Blackfish to personally help out his niece.

A few tweaks and this show could be so good, guys. Tumblr user “turtle-paced” pointed out in her review of “No One” how easily Brienne’s exchange with Blackfish could have been altered to A.) make us feel that Brienne is more than just a convenient sword, and B.) actually make us feel like this show is more than a series of discrete moments of random shocks:

Hey, remember when Catelyn dragged Brienne out of a perilous situation saying “fight for the living, not the dead”? Neither do I, it didn’t happen in the show. What show!Catelyn did say in that situation was “you can’t avenge Renly if you’re dead” which seems like advice that’s at least analogous to what’s going on here. Isn’t it neat that the adaptation made the space for a parallel where the beneficiary of that advice has a chance to pay it back to her dead advisor’s kin – oh. No. Brynden got killed offscreen.

Someone, oh someone, please explain to me how Brienne is supposed to be remotely interesting or empowering? She stalks around killing the people the plot requires her to kill and failing at everything else. Sometimes she gets hit on by Tormund as a joke.

I think our last of the Badasses™ is Yara.

She’s at least supposed to be battle-hardened and stuff, right? And here’s the thing: I was really close to being won over by her after “Home,” when she yelled at her dad about the futility of the reaving lifestyle and later seemed to want to be Queen not just because it was her duty, but because she felt she could elicit positive change.

Then she screamed at Theon for being too traumatized to come with her (back in Season 4) and coldly yelled at him to stop crying. Then she stood passively in the background of her own goddamn queensmoot and let Theon argue everything for her. Then she screamed at him even more for his trauma because it was inconvenient to her, and told him to kill himself if he wasn’t going to be useful. Then she raped a sex slave because she apparently didn’t care about the iron price anymore, nor the concepts of slavery and consent. Then she tried to argue against Dany outlawing raping because that was the Ironborn “way of life”—the same way of life she had argued against in the episode I just praised. Then, of course, it was time for her Nod of Approval from Theon.

So am I seriously supposed to see an abuser like Yara, who also can’t seem to argue her own cases and make her own decisions without the help of her brother, as an “empowered” woman? If so, may I ask why?

Speaking of women standing quietly in a corner and being ineffectual at everything they do, there was Sansa this year. That’s right, Ms. “Boss Ass Bitch” herself, according to Sophie Turner.

To be fair, there were a few scenes where Sansa really came out swinging. She whipped the letter from Ramsay out of Jon’s hands and read it in a cool, calm fashion. She met with Littlefinger and screamed in his face that his plan last year was stupid.

Those who voted in ballot for the upcoming “Carol Awards” know that I often joke about the many different personalities of Sansa, but does it really need to be pointed out this assertive, in-charge, has-a-totally-accurate-reading-on-the-situation sits in complete contention with the Sansa last year who agreed to the world’s worst plan without so much as a follow-up question because of some amorphous promise of revenge?

The good news, however, is that it doesn’t overly matter because after only a few episodes of this Boss-Ass scripting, Sansa was reduced to a character who would stand quietly in a corner while other people argued her case for her. She failed to persuade Lyanna Mormont and Lord Glover to help at all (as did Jon, to be fair), then she sat quietly fuming during a war strategy session when a few episodes prior, we had seen her speak up in the exact same situation. When she yelled at Jon for not calling on her, as if she was some school girl who wanted to present a report, she then claimed that she didn’t know anything. Then why were you upset?  Plus Sansa also withheld crucial information about the Vale troops that cost some six hundred thousand of her countrymen their lives, only to be hand-waved away in the finale with an apology.

The one bright-spot of her scripting was that Jon fared even worse, so some critics praised her as the “smart one.” However, this also came undone in the final episode, when every single Northern Lord forgot about her claim despite the fact that she was sitting right there. And like, this could have been so easily fixed if Sansa had been the one to argue for Jon’s kingship (also because it would be an extra middle finger to Littlefinger). But no, that came from Lyanna Mormont, the 10-year-old girl with unquestioning authority who didn’t even consider the proper succession.

Sansa’s face at the end suggested that all of this was done for more tension. Once again, if she wasn’t for it, she could have spoken up. “Hey, how about a ‘Queen in the North’ instead? I’m literally Robb’s heir, and I’m the one who saved you. My doofus brother marched everyone into a trap.” Wait, did her voice stop working during this scene again?

Literally the only proactive thing Sansa did this season was write a letter begging help that she had already turned down from the dude who sold her to her rapist. And then afterwards when Littlefinger told her he wanted to marry her and co-rule Westeros, she called it a “pretty picture.”

I should point out that I am purposely going to save discussing the full implications of Sansa’s arc with Ramsay until Part 3 of this series: The Fallacy of Violence as Empowerment. However, given the fact that her murder of him was most certainly framed as the climax of her arc, and given the fact that it would have made far more sense for the Vale knights’ eleventh hour save had Sansa actually remained there the whole time (this would have avoided her weird and costly refusal to tell Jon about the troops), we need to take a moment to appreciate that Sansa was in fact displaced from her book-arc for nothing more than a two-season long revenge porn. She was raped in the most illogical context possible because the rape created two seasons worth of drama.

Even if we want to pretend this was a matter of D&D prioritizing Ramsay’s story over Sansa’s (which is very telling in and of itself), there’s the issue that the most important part of Ramsay marrying “a Stark” in the books was that he had the one thing Jon was willing to break his vows over—and at a great cost, ultimately. It’s why the Northern Lords outside of Winterfell were clamoring to get there as fast as possible, champing at the bit to go to war. To save “Ned’s little girl.” The Glovers weren’t praising the Boltons; Robett Glover was in White Harbor with Wyman Manderly trying everything they can to find Rickon Stark, while Sybelle Glover sent clansmen sworn to Deepwood Motte with Stannis to march on Winterfell.

What happened in the show though? D&D replaced that Stark hostage with Rickon, who was used only as a prop to die and make us feel bad. As for Sansa having married Ramsay, Lyanna Mormont held that against her. Aside from her, not a single person in the North gave any shits. Sansa in Winterfell affected nothing in the Northern theater other than motivating Theon to have a Stark-centric “redemption” arc that was punted out the window the second they needed him to head back to the Iron Islands, and spurring Sansa to become “strong” and “hardened,” because rape needed to be her teacher. That is never forgivable, and that is never feminist.

Hey, this is going to shock you, but you know one character who I unironically always have found feminist on this show? The character who was actually my favorite? Cersei. I mean it; this is not a bit of mine.

Now I should clarify, I 100% mean Show!Cersei here, because Book!Cersei has nothing to do with her. However, for the past few seasons, D&D have been telling a very consistent story of a woman who faces abuses, is very much shut out of power, and who sees her children fall victim to exploitative and dangerous situations. As a result, she does what she can with the recourse that she has. Arming the Faith was myopic, certainly, but by all accounts she was fooled by the High Sparrow who had been preaching tolerance and nonviolence up until that point.

You can count the “bad” things Cersei has done on this show on one-hand and have fingers left over. From Season 4 on, you would still have five.

This season continued that narrative…until it didn’t. In fact, it continued that narrative in every single episode but the last one. We saw a Cersei who was continually put upon: she couldn’t go to her daughter’s funeral because her son had found her slutshaming effective, she was barred from contributing to the Small Council, she was sent to stand in the galley while her son delivered an announcement for the crime of being a woman… Heck, even when she “chose violence” it was because a group of armed bullies wanted to drag her out of the Keep for no apparent reason—though she really did luck out that the High Sparrow was apparently never told about this (or else why was he mystified when she didn’t come to her trial?).

And then she blew everything up and didn’t bother to check on how this might affect her son.

The weirdest part is that I seem to be one of the only people who views this as out-of-character. Because I guess her being snippy with Margaery is the same thing as her willingness to commit mass-murder, while drinking and smirking about it?

Oh and then Cersei went and turned the nun who had been in charge during her imprisonment over to Gregor Clegane, to be slowly tortured (and likely raped). Why the septa got this extra torture when the High Sparrow, who had literally ordered Cersei’s imprisonment and walk of atonement, was just blown to smithereens is anyone’s guess. I suppose we can pretend that the off-screen extraction mission to the sept (or to Margaery’s quarters…this is the same septa who was tailing her) could only handle a low-security target.

So as Cersei sat back and drank her wine, I had to sit back and see the death of the only feminist character on the dang show. Yeah, she randomly ascended to power as a result, but only a crazed villain would do something like this. Are we supposed to be lauding the Wicked Witch of the West as a feminist icon because she had winged monkeys who answered to her? (Wicked fans, please don’t answer this.) How about Cruella de Vil? She was enterprising.

Speaking of enterprising ladies, while I have never been particularly compelled by Margaery the Sexual Manipulator, or even found her to be that good of person (did she have any ambitions in all of Season 5 beyond winning a cat fight?), I cannot deny that D&D have gone to great lengths to paint her as a savvy woman who is usually in control of the situation. Except that time last year when she inexplicably needs to summon her grandmother because she didn’t feel like bothering to try and have a conversation with Cersei about the Loras situation. Or bothering to go down to the Sept herself despite being well-loved by the people.

Yes, there is the troubling fact that D&D penned Margaery to be a statutory rapist, and apparently didn’t realize it, because Tommen’s abuse is never actually addressed by the narrative. Like, you could make an argument that his suicide was that follow-up, so maybe they did understand; that Tommen was realistically penned as a young, impressionable kid who could not handle losing his abuser, and this was something that might happen as a consequence of that. Yet when you listen to D&D discuss his suicide, here’s what they have to say:

“Meanwhile, while this is happening, Tommen’s alone. This malleable, fragile, devastated child, basically is sitting there without anyone to comfort him, and if [Cersei] had been there, he wouldn’t have gone out that window. She failed him, and she alone failed him here.” –Dan Weiss

Then Benioff jumps in to talk about how Cersei’s children are the one thing that humanized her, because idealized motherhood isn’t sexist at all. But still, we are given the impression that despite their acknowledgements of Tommen’s impressionable nature, it is merely his tipsy mother to blame rather than, like, his rapist.

For this reason, when talking about Margaery as a feminist character, I’m truly at a loss. It’s great that she’s smart? But why the heck is she presented to us in a remotely positive light?

However, even ignoring that she’s accidentally a rapist (oh yay, she and Yara share in that girl power!), this season, her intellect was punted out the window too. Now, it is important to note that she’s not acting in her self-interest: her sole motivation was to save her brother from his [implied] torture. This wasn’t to improve her House’s position; this wasn’t to help her standing—it was all because Loras told her that he wanted “it” to stop, and she was going to make that happen.

This would have been fine, except the path she took to do so was utterly nonsensical. Rather than trying to even get time with her Grandmother to plan something, she immediately jumped to fake piety, selling out Loras’s claim, persuading Tommen to…establish a religious oligarchy?? (it was never made clear what this alliance meant past “the Kingsguard wear seven-pointed stars”), and despite all that, she couldn’t even get the dude out on bail. Also, she was forced to have a septa follow her around everywhere for her crime of perjury. Keep in mind that at the same time, Cersei, who was still accused of high treason, was prancing around with a reanimated corpse, crashing Small Council meetings, making out with her brother (this was still literally one of her charges), and killing Faith Militant members without anyone saying boo. Marg, honey, your deal really sucked.

Why did Margaery ask the Tyrell army to stand down when she did? Because they probably could have freed Loras right there and then. Even if we want to pretend that she truly thought the fake-piety-amorphous-Faith-union was the best path to saving her brother, you’re telling me that once she stepped out into the sunlight and saw largest army in the Seven Kingdoms, being led by her father, standing right there, it wouldn’t have maybe changed her read on the situation?

Also not to bring up the books, but in the books, just one of Mace’s bannermen marching to the city with his troops convinced the Faith to release Margaery from her prison (yay to Randyll Tarly for doing something other than being a jerk at a dinner table), when she had faced much more serious charges than her show counterpart.

Stepping back and looking at the season as a whole, Margaery was nothing more than a hapless victim. She was imprisoned for no discernable crime, and then came up with a sucky plan to save her brother that only resulted in the power of her House crippled and him mutilated. Then she blew up. And I am told that she’s a very feminist character.

We also have her grandmother, who is unquestionably the official negotiator of House Tyrell despite the patriarchy existing to punish her granddaughter and Cersei. How does she wield this power? By refusing to go to war repeatedly to save the future of her House. The only thing that eventually convinces her is the idea of Margaery also facing a Walk of Atonement. Though at least the walk would have freed her, which is more than Olenna’s plan of doing nothing involved.

Later, Margaery slips her a note that assures Olenna this piety thing is an act, and maybe also a warning, so she high-tails it out of King’s Landing. Then everyone she cares about blows up, so she decides her best course of action is to ally with a group of murderous women who just slaughtered their own House. Or maybe it was because of the possibility of an alliance with Dany? Who knows, but at least she sasses Obara for “looking like a boy” so that we know she’s empowered. And she wants revenge, which is being sold to us as empowerment too. Too bad she didn’t have this fighting spirit during a time where it might have helped anything.

While we’re in Dorne, please don’t make me rehash the awfulness that is the petty, catty Sand Snakes and Ellaria. I was confused why anyone talked about how great it was that they “took on the patriarchy,” when these women were A.) clearly presented to us in a bad light, and B.) embracing toxically patriarchal values by murdering men who didn’t mean their “strong” standards, aka out for blood and showing a refusal to make any sort of peace.

I would also prefer not to yet again dredge up my issues with how Gilly and the women of Horn Hill were penned. Yeah, it’s hard not to agree with someone yelling at Randyll Tarly. But it’s as utterly out of place and pandering as if bell hooks was zapped into Meereen to read Tyrion passages of Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. It’s not magically ~feminism~ if the actual condition of women in the established setting is ignored, or if the setting is too inconsistent for there to *be* a condition of women.

Speaking of pandering, we have Lyanna Mormont. Thanks to D&D’s insightful “Inside the Episode” commentary, we know that they thought it would simply be a “fun” scene to watch to have a 10-year-old girl be a tough negotiator. But despite intent, she actually was a bit of a joy to see on our screen. With her deeply rooted sense of authority and a refusal to be infantilized, she’s the closest thing to Arianne Martell we’ve had on our screens. The only issue is that this is the same person who gave Stannis a middle finger because she only serves a STARK, yet then dismisses Jon and Sansa’s request for help (it’s a Snow and a Bolton, apparently), even after they tell her that Rickon [STARK] is being held hostage. She only agrees to join their cause when Davos mentions zombies. However, the next scene where she speaks, she’s shaming other Northern Lords for not joining the Starks.

I like the concept of Lyanna, however with her execution, it’s clear that there was no thought put into her character past “wouldn’t it be fun if…”

A similarly shallow line of thought seemed to be followed for Melisandre this season. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we revealed that she was old?” Would it? Do I really need to get into the sexist implications of sagging tits being framed as a Shocking™ moment (why was she naked?). Also why did this matter in the slightest? The only thing it seemed to influence, forgive me for suggesting, is a notable dialing back in her character’s overt displays of sexuality. She spent a good part of Season 5 sexually harassing Jon, but now that the audience knows her hot bod is an illusion, she’s desexualized?

There’s also the fact that Melisandre was pretty much shunted to the side for the entire season. It was Davos’s idea for her to resurrect Jon, and when she did so successfully, the people thought of him as a god. Why would they give two craps about the sorceress? Then she sat quietly through a war council meeting. Then she was basically off the screen. I guess it’s nifty that there is a woman with *magic powers*, but given that she only applies it when prompted by men is a bit… There’s a word for it. “Sexism.”

I’ll be perfectly honest: I almost forgot about Meera Reed this season. She uh…was sad about her brother for a scene until Leaf told her that she needed to stop it because Bran needed her. She did pretty well holding her own against zombies. She’s not not feminist, so much as she is a non-entity.

That just leaves Missandei. I’m not going to lie: I found it very refreshing and yes, feminist, when Missandei had the following exchange with Tyrion:

Missandei: How many days were you a slave?

Tyrion: Long enough to know.

Missandei: Not long enough to understand.

Unfortunately, that’s kind of it for Missandei this season. She gives public support for Tyrion’s crappy plans in front of other former slaves, and then fades to the background to be a prop for thinly veiled rape jokes, while Grey Worm is the only one who [rightfully] continues to challenge him.

Tyrion: Let’s play a game. You don’t play games, either one of you, ever

Grey Worm: Games are for children.

Missandei: My master Kraznys would sometimes make us play games.

Tyrion: There, that’s a start.

Missandei: Only the girls.

Tyrion: No, no, no. Not that. Of course not that. Innocent games. Fun games. Drinking games.

Not to mention we’re treated to at least four different scenes of Tyrion explaining some concept to Missandei and Grey Worm, be it dragon taming or drinking games, with the tone of a teacher patiently educating the inner-city kids. I *think* it’s supposed to be uncomfortable since his plans still result in the masters attacking, but at the same time it does mean that Missandei and Grey Worm are accorded almost no narrative space of their own; they’re props for that discomfort to play out. Yay.

Aaaaaand then, that’s Season 6! I gotta say, I’m looking for all these “strong women” that are propelling GoT to the status of a “feminist fable,” and I’m simply coming up short. Where are they? Can you help me locate them?

Because really, all I’m seeing are female characters written by two dudes who don’t seem to be aware of any of the sexist assumptions they’re making in the writers’ room, nor any implications that might come out of it. Why did the Waif hate Arya? Why did Theon argue for Yara at the kingsmoot? Why was Sansa’s path to empowerment told through rape (especially when that path had already been established in Season 4)?

And all I’m seeing are critics who think a woman giving an order is inherently feminist, without bothering to listen to what that order actually is.

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The final part of this series will involve tackling the concept of “violence = empowerment,” and why this is not the pathway to a feminist narrative.

Images courtesy of HBO

The post The Fallacy of GoT’s ‘Women on Top’ Part 2: Characters appeared first on Fandom Following.

La Sociedad Española de Pornografía ha publicado un informe esta mañana en el que certifica que los penes del porno casero saben como los de antes en comparación con los de la industria convencional, que no saben a nada. “Me recuerda a mi infancia porque sabe como la de mi abuelo”, reconocía hoy una actriz

Being proposed to is one of the most important moments in your life. But is Kevin really excited to spend the rest of his live with you, or is he phoning it in with this ten-piece band he hired to play while your whole family watches? Use these hot tips to tell whether or not your guy is into this proposal.

 

He’s Not Sweating

The secret to a successful marriage is that you can’t sweat the small stuff, and if Kevin were really into this, he’d be straight up dripping right now. But you’ve been walking in this park for five minutes and there’s nothing. Is he really this chill on one of the most vulnerable moments of his life, or is he just not that invested in this elaborate marriage proposal?

 

He’s Just Quoting Shakespeare

Kevin’s proposal is gorgeous. It’s full of bon mots about how you changed his life for the better and how much he loves you. But it’s totally obvious that this shit is not his material. Sure, it’s nice for him to ask, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” but what does it mean? Is he quoting the Bard because he really means it or would he just rather be watching Shakespeare in Love right now? Ugh!

 

He Got You a Ring from Your Pinterest Board

You had about 100 princess cut diamonds pinned to your very public engagement ring Pinterest board, and Kevin took note. But did he do it because he knew you’d love it or because he was too lazy to come up with ideas himself?

 

 

There’s Already Champagne

As soon as you said yes, the waiter rushed over with a bottle of champagne. Wow, he sure is making other people take care of things. Does he even care? Now he’s going to sit patiently as you photograph your hand for twenty minutes to get the perfect #ISaidYes Instagram. It’s like he’s totally zoned out!

 

There Wasn’t Even a Single Blimp

One of the most challenging ways to propose is with a blimp, and he didn’t get you one Sure, you didn’t want one, but that’s beside the point. Kevin just won’t step up when there’s a challenge. Should you even say yes??

 

A proposal is one of the most important moments in life—and it should be perfect. With these tips you’ll be able to figure out if your guy is into the proposal or not.

Rather than allowing her personality to be influenced by pedestrian, mainstream interests, 24-year-old Eliza Zevallos has built her personality around her hatred of popular things.

 

“I basically just identify trends that many people seem to be enjoying and dismiss them all without satisfying justifications,” says Zevallos. “Doing this proves that I’m different from everyone else.”

 

A close friend of Zevallos agreed. “One time Eliza told me that anyone who uses the dog filter on Snapchat should be put down,” she says. “I immediately realized that I was a stupid fool for ever liking it and deleted the app.”

 

Other popular things Zevallos hates include: Veganism, Beyoncé, jeggings, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, rooftop parties, Kindles, brunch, weddings, emojis, diet soda, Tumblr, baseball caps, anyone who went to business school, saying hello, frappuccinos, selfie sticks, carpooling, lumberjacks, Darwinism, midi rings, crying or holding hands in public, The Bachelorette, modern art, Pokemon Go and Valentine’s Day.

 

“Unlike other people, I don’t have to participate in these things to enjoy my life,” says Zevallos. “I actually don’t have to enjoy anything, ever.”

 

 

“The details don’t really matter,” she says. “Just assume that whatever everyone else is doing, I’m doing the opposite.”

 

When pressed to explain who “everyone else” was, Zevallos simply spread her arms to indicate ‘everyone in the whole world.’

 

At the conclusion of the interview Zevallos’ own personality had not become any clearer, though she did say that she liked that one song by Taylor Swift about having bad blood.

 

“I don’t like Taylor Swift though,” Zevallos clarifies quickly. “But if I did, it would be a decision I made and not because I’m just following the masses, which is what everyone else is doing.”

The world average for the ratio of females/males is 0.999, which means there are (fewer) 1.00 females for (more) 1.01 males.

The Liberal Democrat Party* won big in the July elections in Japan, giving the coalition of parties led by the LDP a two-thirds majority in both the Upper and Lower Houses of the Japanese government, which could allow the party to ram through amendments to the constitution. While Article 9, the antiwar amendment, has long been targeted, it's starting to look much, much worse.

Behind all of this, a recently exposed group called Nihon Kaigi (Japan Conference), a small Shinto group whose goals include:

gut Japan's post-war pacifist constitution, end sexual equality, get rid of foreigners, void pesky "human rights" laws, and return Japan to its Imperial Glory.

While the Prime Ministers eponysterical Abenomics seems to be sputtering, with over 50% of a recent poll saying that they don't think it's going to help, Abe and the Nippon Kaigi are closer than ever to, as they say, making Japan a "normal" nation again. Critics of the group and the administration point to recent restrictions on press freedom as the first steps in a radical re-imagining of the country.

*It has often been pointed out that the party is neither liberal, nor democratic.

A poboación humana foi sempre cazadora. Cando o home descubriu o lume deuse de conta de que a carne cociñada era máis substanciosa. Por...

Por Lois Pérez Leira

Francisco Vázquez Díaz, Compostela, naceu en Santiago de Compostela alá por 1898 e foi escultor. Posiblemente fora tamén un moderno (moderno ao estilo de agora) porque se deu a coñecer cunha acción de guerrilla artística nos anos 20, como contan na Wikipedia, cando para protestar por non ter onde expoñer a súa obra decidiu facer unha exhibición nas escaleiras do Congreso dos Deputados e plantou as súas obras ao carón dos famosos leóns. Nos anos 30 xa tiña onde expoñer e xa tiña un certo renome e durante a Guerra Civil foi escultor oficial do Quinto Rexemento. Trala guerra pasou polos campos de concentración franceses e acabou no exilio, onde morrería.

Compostela fixo tamén, a parte das súas esculturas, ilustracións sobre a vida cotiá na cidade á que lle ‘roubou’ o nome. Hai xa máis de dez anos esas ilustracións protagonizaron unha exposición no Museo das Peregrinacións e agora forman parte da moi interesante exposición que na Fundación Granell, tamén en Santiago, lle dedican á vida na cidade no momento no que estoupou a Guerra Civil. A exposición é moi recomendable. É pequena (en tamaño) pero axuda a ver moitas cousas sobre unha Compostela que se estaba preparando para as festas e que estaba en pleno momento de emoción polo estatuto (o do estatuto, claramente, quedou apagado por completo, pero non as festas: seguiron adiante a pesar da guerra). Nunha das vitrinas están as ilustracións de Compostela sobre a propia Compostela.

As ilustracións teñen un aire riquiño, un pouco ao estilo de Miroslav Sasek, e foron un regalo do autor a un médico santiagués. Agora funcionan como unha especie de elemento conxelado no tempo para ver como era a vida na cidade nos anos da República e para ver unha completa variedade de detalles (o mellor dos debuxos é fixarse en todos os pequenos detalles). Todas as imaxes son de 1935 e dos primeiros meses de 1936

 

Fotos tanto do artigo como da galería vía CervantesVirtual

The post A vida cotiá no Santiago da II República en (riquiñas) ilustracións appeared first on disquecool.

Boyanka Kostova presume de ser o primeiro grupo de Trap en galego. Non hai nada mais fodido que o trap, alo menos en canto a contido “literario” así que imaxinamos que as tiveron que pasar cadelas para acabar lanzándose con este estilo musical. O seu nome ven tomado de Boyanka...

O ex-portavoz parlamentar abandona a primeira liña após diversas derrotas nos últimos meses.

La conversación entre una de las parejas más románticas en la historia del cine resume años de relación y pasión en lo que se ha convertido su vida sexual. Al ver la primera entrega llamada “Before Sunrise” observamos a dos jóvenes ansiosos por vivir, por conocer y por tener el mejor sexo de sus vidas. Esta conversación ocurre 20 años después, cuando el sexo dejó de ser una sorpresa y se convirtió en una rutina, demostrando que a veces lo que sucede en la cama, se refleja en la vida cotidiana. 


El origen

Vanilla sex o sexo vainilla es el nombre que se le ha dado al sexo rutinario, convencional, sin riesgos o incluso aburrido. Nació a partir de que alguien de la cultura BDSM dijo que en el sexo hay quienes se acercan a una heladería italiana, llena de excéntricos sabores y llamativos colores, y que en lugar de pedir lo que bien podría ocasionarle un orgasmo gastronómico, opta por el confiable helado de vainilla. Entre tanta variedad se va por lo seguro, rutinario y aburrido. 

“No es solamente la penetración lenta y tierna en la posición del misionero. El sexo vainilla puede ser sexo oral, de perrito, nalgadas y hasta asfixia…”

El sexo vainilla no implica algo malo, pues muchas veces el amor y la ternura en el sexo se demuestran con lentas y sutiles caricias mientras las parejas se besan y se ven a los ojos. Esto puede pasar en el día uno de conocerse o 30 años después. Lo que muchos consideran un problema es cuando esto deja de ser un  hermoso momento de intimidad y se convierte en una función manual más cercana a algo mecánico que busca cumplir una cuota y no una forma de expresar esa sensualidad y sexualidad que tanto se anhela. Algunos dicen que el sexo vainilla son dos personas blancas, heterosexuales, que siempre hacen la posición del misionero y sólo tienen sexo una vez ese día. 

Existe una problemática con el sexo vainilla, pues los medios de comunicación, desde la llamada “Revolución sexual”, han intentado establecer una diferencia entre las prácticas sexuales cotidianas y las supuestas actividades que expandirán tu conocimiento sexual y te brindarán orgasmos que nunca imaginaste. No es extrañar que gran parte de las revistas que dan consejos sexuales, aseguren que un par de nalgadas o la introducción de un látigo al juego erótico sean suficientes para convertir a cualquiera en un maestro sexual alejado del sexo vainilla. 



No es solamente la penetración lenta y tierna en la posición del misionero. El sexo vainilla puede ser sexo oral, de perrito, nalgadas y hasta asfixia… todo se trata de la rutina y la sorpresa. Si bien el BDSM tiene prácticas que implican bondage, dominación, sumisión y masoquismo (algunos hablan también de disciplina y sadismo), no quiere decir que todo lo que no entre en esa categoría sea sexo vainilla. 

La actualidad

Gracias a la modificación que lo medios le han dado, hoy existen muchos artículos en defensa del sexo vainilla, pues en el afán de no querer ser catalogados como personas aburridas (mucho menos en la cama, nunca en la cama) hay quienes han adoptado prácticas que no les gustan con tal de aparentar apertura mental. En el artículo “En defensa del sexo vainilla” de El País, mencionan lo que dice Sara, una mujer madrileña de 48 años: 

““Donde esté una posición frente a frente, de full contact, en la que te puedas mirar y besar, sobre todo si hay amor de por medio, las demás sobran. Yo también me he colgado de una lámpara, he hecho todo tipo de piruetas y no he disfrutado más. Lo que ocurre es que muchas veces esas performances se practican como sustituto del amor o de la pasión. Yo, en ese caso, soy más partidaria de cambiar el muñeco y volver a sentir todo eso de nuevo”.



Incluso mencionan un texto llamado “Vanilla Sex and Chocolate Sex” en el que se expone lo siguiente: 

“Si tú dices que yo soy aburrido, yo digo lo contrario. Yo creo que tengo una mente expansiva y suficientemente creativa para disfrutar de las sensaciones y del sexo sin necesidad de accesorios, cuando otros necesitan un montón de esfuerzo por sentir lo que yo siento. Simplemente, porque yo no necesite salir del sexo convencional y tú precises de arneses o tengas una diferente mentalidad no te hace más complicado o interesante que yo. Sólo te hace diferente”.

Es entonces cuando entra en criterio esa nueva definición del sexo vainilla. Puedes acostarte en la cama, cubrir tus ojos con una venda y eso seguirá siendo sexo vainilla (a pesar de la entrega a la pareja). Pero al sentir esa pequeña caricia en el cuello, no saber a donde se dirige eso que no puedes ver, sentir un dedo deslizándose en los muslos interiores y soltar un gemido mientras las piernas tiemblan, eso puede ser mucho más estremecedor que estar revestido de cuero, atado y golpeado por una dominatrix.



Cualquiera puede alejarse del sexo vainilla. No es necesario una mente pervertida que maquine escenarios con orgías, sesiones sexuales que duran todo un día o de las que necesitan de cuero y cuerda para así ser “kinky”. Siempre se dirá que el sexo vainilla es aburrido, pero mientras las parejas estén cómodas con lo que hacen, disfruten sus cuerpos y hagan del sexo una experiencia, no importan las etiquetas que se le pongan. 

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Cada pareja tiene la obligación de vivir momentos inolvidables y bien podrías intentar una de estas 12 durante el primer año. Aunque si eso es demasiado por el momento, pueden relajarse y simplemente ver una de estas películas perfectas para ver en pareja y que se encuentran en Netflix.  

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Fuentes: 

El País, Gawker

The post Formas de saber si estás atrapado en sexo vainilla appeared first on Cultura Colectiva.

In 1988 Kevin Kelly (my friend and business partner at Cool Tools) edited Signal, a book about “Communications Tools for the Information Age.” With articles about smart phones, artificial life, computer viruses, interactive literature, online databases, teleconferencing, image processing, and the “world information economy,” Signal was years ahead of its time. (In 1993 it served as the prototype for Wired, the magazine Kevin co-founded.) Signal changed the way readers thought about technology – we weren’t in a computer revolution – we were in a communications revolution. Kevin understood that people were co-evolving with technology, transforming the way we received, processed, and transmitted information, both as individuals and a society.

Kevin has never stopped thinking about the implications of the communications revolution. He co-founded the first Hackers Conference in 1984, was a founding board member of the WELL (an early online service launched in 1985) and in 1990 he launched the first virtual reality conference. His first book, Out of Control, about technology’s lifelike patterns and behavior, was called “essential reading for all executives,” by Forbes. His latest book, released in June, is called The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. This clear-eyed guide explains the twelve inevitable, interrelated technological trends (including robotics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality) that are already disrupting every imaginable human activity, from the way we work, learn, and play, to the way we exist as a species.

Kevin Kelly's The Inevitable is available from Amazon.

In this excerpt from The Inevitable, Kevin imagines a future were people own nothing but have access to everything-- Mark

In the coming 30 years the tendency toward the dematerialized, the decentralized, the simultaneous, the platform enabled, and the cloud will continue unabated. As long as the costs of communications and computation drop due to advances in technology, these trends are inevitable. They are the result of networks of communication expanding till they are global and ubiquitous, and as the networks deepen they gradually displace matter with intelligence. This grand shift will be true no matter where in the world (whether the United States, China, or Timbuktu) they take place. The underlying mathematics and physics remain. As we increase dematerialization, decentralization, simultaneity, platforms, and the cloud—as we increase all those at once, access will continue to displace ownership. For most things in daily life, accessing will trump owning.

Yet only in a science fiction world would a person own nothing at all. Most people will own some things while accessing others; the mix will differ by person. Yet the extreme scenario of a person who accesses all without any ownership is worth exploring because it reveals the stark direction technology is headed. Here is how it works.

I live in a complex. Like a lot of my friends, I choose to live in the complex because of the round-the-clock services I can get. The box in my apartment is refreshed four times a day. That means I can leave my refreshables (like clothes) there and have them replenished in a few hours. The complex also has its own Node where hourly packages come in via drones, robo vans, and robo bikes from the local processing center. I tell my device what I need and then it’s in my box (at home or at work) within two hours, often sooner. The Node in the lobby also has an awesome 3-D printing fab that can print just about anything in metal, composite, and tissue. There’s also a pretty good storage room full of appliances and tools. The other day I wanted a turkey fryer; there was one in my box from the Node’s library in a hour. Of course, I don’t need to clean it after I’m done; it just goes back into the box. When my friend was visiting, he decided he wanted to cut his own hair. There were hair clippers in the box in 30 minutes. I also subscribe to a camping gear outfit. Camping gear improves so fast each year, and I use it for only a few weeks or weekends, that I much prefer to get the latest, best, pristine gear in my box. Cameras and computers are the same way. They go obsolete so fast, I prefer to subscribe to the latest, greatest ones. Like a lot of my friends, I subscribe to most of my clothes too. It’s a good deal. I can wear something different each day of the year if I want, and I just toss the clothes into the box at the end of the day. They are cleaned and redistributed, and often altered a bit to keep people guessing. They even have a great selection of vintage T-shirts that most other companies don’t have. The few special smartshirts I own are chipped-tagged so they come back to me the next day cleaned and pressed.

I subscribe to several food lines. I get fresh produce directly from a farmer nearby, and a line of hot ready-to-eat meals at the door. The Node knows my schedule, my location on my commute, my preferences, so it’s really accurate in timing the delivery. When I want to cook myself, I can get any ingredient or special dish I need. My complex has an arrangement so all the ongoing food and cleaning replenishables appear a day before they are needed in the refrig or cupboard. If I was flush with cash, I’d rent a premium flat, but I got a great deal on my place in the complex because they rent it out anytime I am not there. It’s fine with me since when I return it’s cleaner than I leave it.

I have never owned any music, movies, games, books, art, or realie worlds. I just subscribe to Universal Stuff. The arty pictures on my wall keep changing so I don’t take them for granted. I use a special online service that prepares my walls from my collection on Pinterest. My parents subscribe to a museum service that lends them actual historical works of art in rotation, but that is out of my range. These days I am trying out 3-D sculptures that reconfigure themselves each month so you keep noticing them. Even the toys I had as a kid growing up were from Universal. My mom used to say, “You only play with them for a few months—why own them?” So every couple of months they would go into the box and new toys would show up.

Universal is so smart I usually don’t have to wait more than 30 seconds for my ride, even during surges. The car just appears because it knows my schedule and can deduce my plans from my texts, calendar, and calls. I’m trying to save money, so sometimes I’ll double or triple up with others on the way to work. There is plenty of bandwidth so we can all screen. For exercise, I subscribe to several gyms and a bicycle service. I get an up-to-date bike, tuned and cleaned and ready at my departure point. For long-haul travel I like these new personal hover drones. They are hard to get when you need them right now since they are so new, but so much more convenient than commercial jets. As long as I travel to complexes in other cities that have reciprocal services, I don’t need to pack very much since I can get everything—the same things I normally use—from the local Nodes.

My father sometimes asks me if I feel untethered and irresponsible not owning anything. I tell him I feel the opposite: I feel a deep connection to the primeval. I feel like an ancient hunter-gatherer who owns nothing as he wends his way through the complexities of nature, conjuring up a tool just in time for its use and then leaving it behind as he moves on. It is the farmer who needs a barn for his accumulation. The digital native is free to race ahead and explore the unknown. Accessing rather than owning keeps me agile and fresh, ready for whatever is next.

Who will be the first to say, "I saw it immediately. I don't understand why anyone would have trouble finding it?"

[via]

Culture, not biology, decides the difference between music and noise. "Consonance seems like such a simple phenomenon, and in Western music there's strong supposition that it's biological... But this study suggests culture is more important than many people acknowledge." Study originally published in Nature.

FERROL360 | Viernes 15 julio 2016 | 12:58

Los técnicos superiores de Navantia Ría de Ferrol han secundado este viernes una movilización ante el edificio de Dirección promovida por el Comité de Empresa de Ferrol para mostrar su rechazo ante la decisión tomada por la empresa que ha supuesto el recorte de un 5 % en la cuantía que perciben por objetivos.

Se trata de una iniciativa histórica en el astillero ferrolano ya que, como recuerdan desde el Comité, nunca los técnicos superiores habían tomado parte de ningún acto de protesta puesto que permanecen al margen de los convenios del resto de la plantilla y su situación es vulnerable.

Tal y como adelantaba Ferrol360 el pasado martes, los sindicatos se reunían entonces con el colectivo de técnicos que ya han visto mermada su nómina en este pasado mes de junio, exigiendo «a apertura dunha negociación coa representación social para atopar unha saída xusta e respectuosa cos dereitos do colectivo afectado» y reclamando «a reversión inmediata da decisión adoptada e abono do 5 % que se lles usurpou».

Este viernes, mediante un aviso en el tablón de anuncios de la Oficina Técnica, el Comité llamaba a los técnicos a una segunda asamblea a las 8:30 horas en su local. Tras la lectura de un escrito de consenso donde exponían a la dirección de la empresa la demanda del reintegro del 5 %, pero también la modificación del sistema de cobro por objetivos para integrar las cuantías en el salario base y la integración de este personal en el convenio colectivo, representantes sindicales y algo más de 50 técnicos superiores marchaban hasta el edificio de Dirección donde registraron el documento en la Jefatura de Personal como una «resolución de los técnicos superiores», tal y como explicó el secretario del órgano sindical, Luis García,a preguntas de Ferrol360.

Movilizaciones en todas las plantas

El resto de astilleros de la empresa Navantia se movilizarán el próximo día 20 de julio, pero Ferrol ha tenido que adelantarse a esa fecha porque este mismo viernes gran parte de la plantilla sale de vacaciones y no sería la protesta lo suficientemente representativa, matizan desde el Comité.

Puerto Real, Madrid y San Fernando sí secundarán la movilización del próximo miércoles, fecha elegida porque se celebra en la capital una reunión del Consejo de Administración de Navantia. Cartagena, por su parte, también mostrará su rechazo, pero aún no ha concretado un día exacto.

«Eu levo trinta e pico de anos traballando aquí e é a primeira vez que se fan dúas asembleas na mesma semana, e a primeira vez que os técnicos superiores participan e despois saen en manifestación ata Dirección», destaca Luis García.

Sin descartar medidas judiciales

Además de lo expuesto con anterioridad, en el escrito aprobado por unanimidad en la asamblea de hoy anuncian que con independencia «das accións, presións e mobilizacións que se poidan levar adiante» se analizarán otras vías. Así, no descartan la «posibilidade de plantexar unha demanda conxunta pola vía do conflito colectivo e ante os tribunais de Xustiza».

La torta caliente de pavo deslumbra por su sencillez. No tiene más que rebanadas de pavo  asado y guacamole. La tapa de la telera va mojada en la salsa del pavo. Esta torta tuvo su apogeo en la época de Alemán y es coetánea del principio de nuestra industrialización y con la idea —desechada hoy en día— de que el guajolote es el animal más suculento.

• La historia de 'El Rey del Pavo'
• Tortas: el tradicional emparedado mexicano
• Historia y curiosidades de la torta
• Historia y elogio de la torta

Café La Perla

Circuito Interior / Mixcoac

El Rey del Pavo

Achievement unlocked: ya estuve en EL REY DEL PAVO y me tome DOS TORTAS pic.twitter.com/XN3UAcHSik

— Laconada Press (@laconada) July 10, 2016

Las tortas de Antes

Calle Cairo / Clavería

Corazón de Pollo

¿Quién es Piper Blush?

Durante el verano, siempre he sido la chica que andaba chupando un helado. Se podría decir que tengo una fijación oral.

Prefiero las mamadas ante cualquier otro acto sexual, que en parte es una de las razones por la que soy modelo para TheArtofBlowjob. Es una página que tiene como objetivo ayudar a las mujeres a que disfruten y que estén al cargo de su sexualidad, dando una descripción honesta y sensual de cómo el sexo oral puede ser tanto empoderador como hermoso, sin degradar a ninguno de los dos.

Faciales

¡Pienso que Amarna estará de acuerdo conmigo en esto! Creo que un hombre que le hace un facial a una mujer, no significa que no le respete. Nunca he sentido que me hayan faltado el respeto mientras hacía una mamada. Mi corrida favorita es en la cara. Yo personalmente siento una conexión más profunda con un hombre cuando me deja hacerle una mamada. Para algunas personas, una corrida facial es considerada como una dominación masculina y algo denigrante para la mujer, pero no para mí. Si me hiciera sentir de esa manera, no me permitiría a mí misma hacerlo. Los hombres deben estar orgullosos de su virilidad, no importa ni el tamaño ni la forma.

La actitud correcta

Pienso que las mujeres no se dan cuenta de cómo su actitud hacia las mamadas puede afectar a su pareja. El contacto visual es muy importante, esto te ayuda a conectar con tu pareja sin necesidad de hablar. El intercambio de una mirada, te permite saber cómo se siente la otra persona. La mayoría de los hombres que me he encontrado, me dicen que es el contacto visual y una actitud apasionada la que marca la diferencia entre una mamada estándar y una mamada alucinante. ¡Siempre debes pensar en tu propio disfrute mientras la chupas! ¡A él le gustará si a ella le gusta lo que hace! Las mujeres no deberían ser tímidas a la hora de dejar saber a su pareja lo mucho que disfrutan su virilidad. ¡Los hombres también necesitan que se les diga que son hermosos!

¡Sigue a Piper en las redes!

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PiperBlushStory
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialpiperblush/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PiperBlush/
SFW Blog: http://piperblushstory.com

John McTierman, veterano director de películas como 'La jungla de cristal' o 'Depredador', ha atacado duramente al cine de superhéroes, el género más de moda en el Hollywood actual. "Realmente no puedo ver esas películas. Me irritan desde el segundo que comienzan", ha asegurado, a la par que añadía que él "odia la mayoría» de estas cintas que están realizadas por "fascistas".

En una entrevista con la revista 'Premiere', el realizador ha puesto como ejemplo de sus críticas las películas de la saga 'Capitán América': "El culto de la hiper-masculinidad americana es una de las peores cosas que le han ocurrido al mundo en los últimos 50 años. Cientos de miles de personas han muerto por esta desilusión idiota. Así que, ¿cómo puede alguien ver un filme que se llama 'Capitán América'?".

McTiernan, que ha acusado a estas películas de tener "acción pero no seres humanos", se quejaba de las grandes majors hollywoodienses con unas declaraciones que van a traer cola: "Todo lo que hacen es adaptaciones de cómics de superhéroes, películas hechas por fascistas". El hombre detrás de 'La caza del octubre rojo' despotricaba sobre cómo ven los niños estos largometrajes. "Están haciendo que todos los jóvenes del mundo piensen que nunca serán suficientemente importantes para que una película hable de sus vidas", ha asegurado.

Responsable de películas como 'El último gran héroe', McTiernan no se ha quedado ahí: "Es un momento único en la historia del cine, esto no solía ser así. Los niños y niñas de antes aprendían cómo debían ser un hombre o una mujer viendo películas. ¿Qué ha sido de esa moral? Los cómics sólo hacen héroes para los negocios".

Después de admitir que, en los últimos años, se ha enamorado de 'Argo', de Ben Affleck y de dar algunos detalles de su próximo proyecto -que se filmará en Francia o Serbia y que tendrá como protagonistas a un huérfano y a una madre sin hijos-, el director de la primera y tercera parte de 'La jungla de cristal' definió a 'Mad Max; Furia en la carretera' como un "producto de las corporaciones" y añadió que el productor Joel Silver "siempre hará películas de acción real, pero no mucho más".

John McTiernan, cuya última película, 'Basic', data de 2003, fue encarcelado en 2013 tras admitir haber contratado un detective para espiar a Charles Roven (productor de la trilogía de 'El caballero oscuro'), con quien estaba trabajando en su película 'Rollerball'.

In which the Criterion Collection invites actores and directors to choose some flicks Including Michael "extremely highbrow" Cera, Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, Guy Maddin, and Edgar Wright.

Not all have been added to the playlist: Zizek, Wim Wenders, Richard Ayoade, Anna Karina, Yorgos Lanthimos & Ariane Labed, Patrick Brice.

If you guys could stop playing Star Realms for a second, I've got some good news – Smash Up is going digital!

Alderac Entertainment Group has partnered with Nomad Games, the masterminds behind Talisman: Horus Heresy and Backgammon Blitz, to bring this wonderful shuffle-building game to iOS, Android (and PC) this Autumn.

The digital adaptation will offer both solo play vs. AI as well as multiplayer for up to four via either pass-and-play or online. The game will also launch with eight starting factions. The existing physical expansions will also be ported to digital via DLC – so nothing we're not used to.

We've had great fun in the past playing the physical version, so hearing that this is coming to digital is great news. Personally, I won't be happy until I get my Bear Cavalry, but it's a start.

We'll bring you more information as it comes in, in the mean time, feel free to recount your most bizarre faction combos in the comments!

Here is the official teaser trailer:

La adaptación televisiva de la saga fantástica de George R.R. Martin, cuya última temporada finalizó recientemente, ha dejado de tomar el material original como punto de partida, y se ha propuesto sorprender tanto a lectores como a no-lectores. Sin embargo los showrunners han acabado convirtiendo a la serie en una ficción que, por primera vez, se presenta bastante previsible.

Actualmente, pocas series poseen la relevancia mediática de Juego de Tronos (2011-), que corre paralela a un respeto tanto entre la crítica como entre el público y que parece no dejar de crecer con la emisión de su sexta temporada. Ya llegada a su fin, los showrunners David Benioff y D.B. Weiss deben respirar tranquilos: esta última etapa se revelaba decisiva al no contar, por primera vez en toda su historia, con la guía de las novelas de George R.R. Martin –éste aún se halla inmerso en la redacción del sexto volumen, Vientos de Invierno, que ni siquiera es el último planeado–, y los seguidores no le han dado la espalda. Es más, estos últimos capítulos han tenido más giros –es decir, más muertes– que nunca, y los guionistas han conseguido dotar a prácticamente cada uno de ellos de algún tipo de suceso que pueda ser tema de conversación al día siguiente. Bastante lejos, en ese sentido, de la irregular temporada anterior, y más cerca de ese supuesto final al que la serie llegará inevitablemente dentro de tan sólo dos temporadas.

Sin embargo, ¿conserva Juego de Tronos la capacidad para sorprender de años anteriores? Dado que el devenir de estos últimos episodios resultaba una incógnita no sólo para los ajenos a la obra de Martin, sino también para sus lectores más aplicados, todo apuntaba a que sí lo haría, y a que incluso más que antes. Benioff y Weiss tenían toda la libertad del mundo para llevar la ficción por el camino que ellos prefirieran, jugando con las expectativas de los fans y acometiendo una narrativa paralela a la que, teóricamente, experimentaríamos en las novelas dentro de algún tiempo. En lugar de eso, ¿qué es lo que han optado por hacer? A continuación, tormenta de SPOILERS.

Un divorcio anunciado

La relación del serial televisivo con los libros originales -cuyo compendio, no debemos obviar este detalle, responde al título de Canción de hielo y fuego (1996-), siendo Juego de Tronos sólo el nombre de su primer volumen-, ha sido prácticamente desde el principio algo complicada, sabiendo captar a la perfección el tono de éstos –a lo que ha ayudado enormemente tanto que George R.R. Martin fuera guionista de televisión como a que él mismo co-produjera la serie, e incluso tuviera tiempo de escribir el guion de algún capítulo que otro–, pero granjeándose esporádicamente ciertos encontronazos con los fans más comprometidos con la integridad del material literario.

Es la historia de siempre, pero de justos es decir que los showrunners han tenido presente en todo momento que la serie debía funcionar como producto audiovisual independiente, sacrificando por ello las correspondientes tramas y personajes que harían de Juego de Tronos un show aún más complicado de seguir de lo que ya es. Resulta modélica en ese sentido la adaptación que pasaron a realizar, aproximadamente a mediados de la cuarta temporada, de Festín de cuervos (2005) y Danza de dragones (2011), cuarta y quinta novelas en las que, por muy hondo que haya calado en el respetable su imagen de genio maquiavélico y calculador, lo cierto es que Martin empezó a perder el control de su propia saga. En este punto asistíamos a una multiplicación desmedida de personajes, y a derivas de la trama difícilmente justificables; en este punto debió ser cuando Weiss y Benioff empezaran a comprender que su serie no podía depender exclusivamente de la visión creativa del novelista.

Sin embargo, los creadores de Juego de Tronos no habían ido nunca a ciegas, y su empeño se presentaba por entonces menos arriesgado de lo que parecía inicialmente. Quizá preocupado por esa muerte que Internet teme de manera tan macabra que le sobrevenga de un momento a otro, el mismo Martin le había contado a los showrunners los planes que tenía para la saga, incluido un esbozo de su desenlace del que éstos podrían llegar a socorrerse si tenían necesidad. Esta información privilegiada fue su brújula a la hora de realizar los primeros retoques -sabiendo que cierto personaje no tendría demasiada relevancia en el futuro, ¿por qué no matarlo, y consolidar la fama de serie “imprevisible y sangrienta” que tan célebres los estaba haciendo?-, y la que justificaría ciertas decisiones que hicieran de la adaptación de los problemáticos libros 4 y 5 algo tan vertiginoso y espectacular como, a estas alturas de su trayectoria televisiva, se antojaba imprescindible.

La estrategia favoreció que la serie siguiera yendo como un tiro, al menos en su mayor parte -todo lo concerniente a Dorne es bastante doloroso-, pero a cambio se fue ganando, comprensiblemente, las iras de los lectores, que habían empezado el show queriendo ver en imágenes su novela favorita y se sorprendían súbitamente “spoileados” con sucesos de los que aún no habían leído nada. Una situación que fue progresivamente agravándose hasta llegar a los últimos episodios de la quinta temporada, los cuales significarían, a la postre, la superación definitiva de las páginas de Martin. Todos convienen en situar este punto en torno al asesinato de Jon Nieve (Kit Harrington), cliffhanger que clausuraba tanto Danza de dragones como esa misma quinta temporada, pero el momento en que Weiss y Benioff decidieron apartarse totalmente de las novelas tuvo lugar un poco antes.

Un episodio antes, concretamente. El noveno, titulado Danza de dragones no por casualidad, y dirigido por David Nutter. En él, Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) decidía sacrificar a su única hija y heredera, Shireen (Kerry Ingram), con la intención de ganarse el favor del Dios Rojo y, bendecido por él, salir victorioso de su conquista de Invernalia.

Daba igual que dicha decisión contradijera totalmente al personaje -no sólo al de las novelas, sino también al monarca progresivamente más humanizado que nos habían ido mostrando los últimos capítulos-; con este golpe de efecto los showrunners se aseguraban nuevamente que la serie fuera la comidilla de las redes sociales. La ficción sacrificaba de esta forma toda coherencia narrativa en pos de la lógica televisiva y el tuit, y se mantenía como ese show “en el que no podías encariñarte con ningún personaje”; en el que, simple y llanamente, “morían todos”. Juego de Tronos acababa de convertirse en una caricatura de sí misma, pero eso no tiene por qué ser algo malo.

Cambio de estrategia

Este giro argumental sucedía poco antes de que Benioff y Weiss dieran por finalizado su seguimiento de las novelas -el propio Stannis, que aún vive en ellas, también la palmaría en el siguiente capítulo-, y no hacía otra cosa que augurar que, en las próximas temporadas, ocurrirían cosas realmente locas. Sin libro alguno en el que fijarse, ¿qué detendría ahora a los showrunners? ¿Qué impediría que Juego de Tronos se convirtiera del todo en ese culebrón absurdo, interminable e innegablemente divertido que ya algunos se venían oliendo? ¿Qué evitaría, en fin, que los futuros capítulos fueran todo lo que los espectadores ajenos a los libros estaban esperando?

Situémonos de una vez en la temporada recién finalizada, rodeada de la expectación acostumbrada y asediada por la certeza de que la fiesta llega a su fin. En un escenario donde Juego de Tronos y Canción de hielo y fuego son cosas eminentemente diferentes, y en el que lo primero ha acabado convirtiéndose en algo así como un fanfic de gran presupuesto con la posibilidad de ponerlo todo patas arriba y destruir el canon con patente de corso. Un escenario muy prometedor… al que quizá la citada proximidad del desenlace ha acabado haciendo más mal que bien. Porque resulta que hay que cerrar tramas, solucionar misterios, acabar proveyendo de sentido al eterno vagar de todos esos personajes.

Y Weiss y Benioff lo han llevado bien. De una manera hasta correcta. Y, contra todo pronóstico, lógica. Algo convencional, incluso. De hecho, la sexta temporada se ha desarrollado en su mayor parte de una manera tan ordenada y coherente, sin grandes salidas de tono, que estos showrunners parecen haberse domesticado, y su manera más llamativa de cerrar tramas se ha ido reduciendo -algunos dirían que siempre se redujo a eso- a matar unos pocos personajes: algunos irrelevantes, otros que tenían los días contados desde hace mucho. Con muchos fuegos de artificio, ocasionalmente motivando cierto escepticismo por lo oportuno de ciertas casualidades y lo fulminante de varios viajes -como es el caso de Arya o el incombustible Meñique, sin que tampoco sus oportunos retornos hayan conseguido sorprender medianamente-. E, irónicamente, todo esto pasa justo en el momento en que podían desmelenarse del todo, y arriesgar y jugar con todos estos personajes como nunca. Dando la apariencia de que eran más valientes cuando tenían los libros como coartada, y sus desvíos eran escasos, pero más ruidosos.

Lo cierto es que la mayoría de grandes sucesos con la que nos ha proveído esta temporada no se han apartado mínimamente de las teorías que los fans habían ido elaborando tras una atenta lectura del manuscrito de Martin, y que resolvían algunos de los misterios principales. Teorías que, por venir de fanáticos estudiosos de la materia, estaban perfectamente documentadas, que a buen seguro daban en el clavo -el mismo Martin no se ha molestado en desmentir la mayoría de ellas-, y que conducían a un desenlace orgánico y, según se intuye, carente de sobresaltos. Efectivamente, Melisandre acabó resucitando a Jon Nieve. Efectivamente, Manosfrías -aunque su aparición haya sido muy diferente a la de los libros- resultó ser el desaparecido, y para muchos olvidado, Benjen Stark. Efectivamente, el Perro está vivo. Por no hablar de lo de R+L=J, representado en el último episodio de una manera absolutamente perezosa. El asunto de Hodor y la puerta fue algo más llamativo en su momento pero, según han confirmado los propios Benioff y Weiss, ya había sido concebido de este modo por el propio Martin.

De hecho, la maniobra de ir confirmando teorías no sería despreciable de por sí, si no fuera porque éstas también parecen adscribirse a todo lo planeado por el novelista para sus esperadas novelas. Con lo cual, de pronto, Juego de Tronos perdería automáticamente su prometedora condición de fanfic desarraigado, y nos arrebataría a todos la posibilidad de disfrutar de la serie y los libros como dos objetos culturales totalmente distintos. Volvería a ser -algunos dirían que nunca dejó de serlo- un engañoso hervidero de spoilers para los pobres lectores que siguen viéndola; y continuaría saboteando el plan inicial de Martin, al tiempo que destruiría cualquier posibilidad de que las novelas por publicar sorprendieran medianamente, y de que la relevancia de éstas se midiera en un futuro desde un prisma ajeno a la monstruosa trascendencia que ha acabado adquiriendo el show de Benioff y Weiss.

Lo más enervante de esta especie de autodestrucción profetizada es que resulta muy complicado identificar culpables. Podríamos dejar caer toda nuestra rabia sobre el pobre Martin -tal y como hicieron muchos lectores, de manera bastante pueril, una vez éste confirmó que el sexto libro no sería publicado antes de la emisión de la última temporada-, pero pecaríamos de falta de empatía ante alguien que ama el medio televisivo -confió sin reparos en Benioff y Weiss, al fin y al cabo-, que quiere entregar un final de saga digno por mucho tiempo que deba invertir en ello, y que estaba lejos de intuir cómo llegaría a complicarse la situación. Resulta más tentador, por otro lado, defenestrar a los propios Benioff y Weiss, aunque no dejen de ser unos guionistas medianamente talentosos -no tanto, en cualquier caso, como ellos mismos se creen-, que simplemente se toparon con un éxito demasiado grande. Un éxito que no han sabido gestionar del todo, y en torno al cual han hecho varios amagos de rebeldía con respecto al material de referencia que, en aras de otorgar el desenlace satisfactorio que un fenómeno como Juego de Tronos requiere, han quedado finalmente en eso. En amagos. Y en una muestra de, sí, cierta cobardía.

Sueño de primavera

Parecía que ciertos protagonistas nunca se reunirían. Parecía que ciertos secundarios nunca regresarían ni se harían garantes de la importancia que muchos les asociamos hace años. Parecía que nunca iba a haber una gran batalla en el Norte que acabara vengando, por fin, la maltrecha memoria de los Stark. A lo largo de la sexta temporada los guionistas se han dedicado, casi con exclusividad, a mostrarnos todo esto.

Claro que habrá más muertes que nos hagan dignos de protagonizar esos vídeos tan divertidos de reacciones post-Boda Roja. Claro que habrá nuevas revelaciones que provoquen que los neófitos se tiren de los pelos. Claro que Bran y su reciente descubrimiento de los “viajes” en el tiempo -a, recalcamos, dos temporadas escasas del final- acabarán proporcionando, como ya han empezado a hacer, suficientes situaciones descabelladas como para que la serie siga siendo estimulante, pero nunca lo será tanto como podría haberlo sido independizándose totalmente de la obra de Martin, y esta misma obra nunca se recuperará de la perniciosa memoria de la ficción televisiva. Todo acaba reduciéndose, pues, a una complicada simbiosis entre adaptación y novela original por la cual cada una es inexorablemente afectada por lo que le suceda a la otra. Y, más concretamente, al grave daño que acabará por infligirle la primera a la segunda en base a todas las mencionadas improvisaciones.

Por supuesto, cabría recurrir a la siempre socorrida solución de decirles a los lectores cabreados que “si no os gusta lo que pasa en la serie, nadie os obliga a verla”, pero antes de hacerlo deberíamos asumir que estos showrunners no han jugado limpio. No, al menos, habiendo prometido una serie tan fiel, legítima y honesta como la que preconizaban las primeras temporadas. Proponer a ciertos lectores -ya perdidamente obsesionados con el devenir de Poniente tanto en el medio escrito como en el audiovisual- que se olviden de la serie pasaría a estas alturas por un ejercicio de flagrante cinismo.

Al final, más que el enfado, la sensación que predomina es la de tristeza, que nos asaltará con mayor facilidad cuando recordemos esas primeras temporadas que auguraron tantas cosas, y tan buenas. Cuando aún el punto crítico que supondría alcanzar a las últimas novelas publicadas se antojaba lejos, y el salto al vacío -o algún tipo de salto, por lo menos- podía postergarse indefinidamente gracias a un ritmo contemplativo, exquisito, en el que primaban los diálogos reflexivos antes que los óbitos a destiempo. Como aquella conversación entre Cersei (Lena Headey) y Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy), inexistente en las novelas -en éstas la acción nunca llegaba a ser narrada bajo el punto de vista del segundo-, en la que ambos reyes reflexionaban sobre su trágica vida matrimonial, dando la justa medida de los personajes magníficamente escritos que habían sido desde el principio. En ese momento, en esa escena -que los propios Benioff y Weiss han considerado reiteradamente como su favorita-, hubo una serie de entidad propia. Justo cuando más fiel estaba siendo, sin serlo del todo. Justo cuando fue la mejor adaptación posible.

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