honestly the amount of crushes I had on girls as a youth but didn’t recognise because the only option offered to me was heterosexuality is mind-blowing
fact: being jealous as a kid when ur best friend has other close friends is most likely a wlw mood
honestly, will poetic cinema ever reach higher heights than the part in the genghis khan music video where the james bond-y hero escapes and then promptly flings himself against the wall in lovelorn anguish and starts singing “ooh, i wanna make up my mind, but i don’t know myself”, echoing the supervillain’s piney lament from moments earlier, and you’re hit full force with the perfect epiphany of “OH SNAP, HE’S IN LOVE TOO!!!!!!!”??
i don’t think so. it’s just unbeatable! unbeatable!
The New Mexico whiptail is a species of lizard with one extraordinary adaptation: every single one of them are female. In a complex process called parthenogenesis, females simulate the act of sex with one another, and lay eggs containing embryos that are exclusively female.
“simulate the act of sex” Are you fucking kidding me.
“COME, WE MUST SIMULATE SEX IN ORDER TO REPRODUCE. LIKE, THIS IS WHAT WE DO TO TRIGGER OVULATION, AND THEREFORE IS NECESSARY FOR REPRODUCTION, BUT IT IS CLEARLY A SIMULATION OF SEX, SINCE THERE IS NO MALE INVOLVED.”
I had a textbook that talked about these lizards. In a diagram, it indicated that one of them was “acting as male” when they mated.
How does a lizard “act as a male” in a species that doesn’t have males to act as? The “male” act being referred to was stimulating ovaries, too, which as far as I know no males of other species do either.
One of my least favourite dialogue tropes is when a man tells a woman, “You can’t do that” or “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” and she says, “Why? Because I’m a woman and therefore too weak to handle this/can’t take care of myself?” or something to that effect and the guy replies with, “No, because everyone who tried that ended up with a bullet in their brain” or something equally reasonable and not gender-specific that paints him as the rational not sexist guy and the woman as an irrational paranoid feminist who searches for sexism in everything. This whole scenario is built on the idea that sexism is over and women’s fears and suspicions don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s also self-congratulatory pseudofeminism bc it’s supposed to make the viewer/reader/listener feel that in this specific work of fiction women are treated respectfully and as equal with men.
huh.. never thought of it like that
But, what if the male character isn’t sexist? I meam…their fictional sure but…I’m not sure how to phrase this
Its not a question of the character themselves- its how the writers are portraying them. The way this trope plays out, the whole moment revolves around the woman looking foolish for assuming that there is sexism happening. She is characterized as being irrational, jumping to conclusions, even insecure. While the dude is characterized as the calm, rational one.
It is a trope that specifically works by taking a woman standing up to sexism and saying “haha it wasnt actually sexist at all! Isnt calling out sexism foolish and silly. Thats what you get for assuming that men are sexist!”
I have the same reaction with homophobic jokes set up like this. Like the whole “you can’t marry a woman”, “why bc you think its wrong” “no we haven’t found you the right dress yet silly!” Or stuff along those lines.
It feels like someone setting up to punch you and then you duck and the person goes “haha, i wasn’t gonna punch you at all, why would you duck? You shouldnt just assume someone’s gonna deck you because they have their fists up.”
…huh, wow.
Also, if the two characters don’t have enough rapport and trust built up for her to take his advice without questioning his motives, framing it as a nebulous Bad Idea For Her To Do That rather than describing the danger right off the bat can come across as pretty patronizing.
