“Willow Smith, you’re 11 years old. Nobody needs advice about ‘being themselves’ from you. Call us back when you get your period” was tweeted and retweeted hundreds of times last night and Monday morning.
Considering what black children learn about blackness, subtly and openly, in the media and in American culture, don’t we want them to have the strength and resilience to say, “I am not your stereotype, but I am me”? Don’t we want them to feel comfortable in their skin? Don’t we want black children to be as free as other children? Don’t we want to inoculate little girls against the onslaught of shitty messages about black femaleness? Perhaps we don’t.
I can’t help but set reaction to Willow Smith next to the plethora of young male performers who brag about swag and girls and money without raising so much as an eyebrow. But a little black girl sings “your validation is not that important to me,” and all hell breaks loose.
Much reaction to Willow Smith also confirms the way women are expected to perform femininity. One person live tweeting the BET Awards offered that Willow Smith was “turning into a little lesbian,” and that wasn’t the only message speculating on the 11-year-old’s sexuality or questioning her gender. Another tweeter snarked that rapper Tyga and Willow are one in the same.
There would be nothing wrong If Willow were to identify as a lesbian or a boy, but what narrow parameters are we placing on girls and women if simply wearing our hair short, sporting a button down over skinny jeans, and daring to mount a skateboard dictates all anyone needs to know about who we are and who we love?
What’s the problem? If I had a little girl, I would be excited as all get out if she were like Willow Smith. I wish I had been more like Willow at 11. (But then, I don’t have multimillionaire parents, which makes some difference, yes?) We lament the presence of strong role models for our children. They could certainly do a lot worse than idolizing a seemingly smart, engaging, self-assured, quirky black girl. That so many of us don’t recognize that says a lot about our society — none of it good. | The Willow Text: What the Reaction to Willow Smith Says About Us (x)
Dr. Peter Herring displays a black dragonfish,
a deep-sea fish found at a depth of about 1,000 meters.
Scientists believe it might use its luminous cheek patches
to communicate. -By Craig T. Kojima, Star-BulletinNo, NO. That is a chestburster. Motherfucker’s holding a fucking chestburster.
AGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Xenomorphs are real.
No please
Put it back
Nuke the ocean from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
Damn, Mother Nature, you scary!
Passed these two filthy, discarded teddy bears today while driving around near Chinatown. I imagine they pretty much just huff Raid and sleep their lives away. Fucking sad if you ask me.
Rant about stupidity on gaming forums
I posted this on someone’s LJ in a comment, but then thought it might be more widely entertaining and thus worth sharing:
* * *
Heh, usually when I hear anything about gaming forums lately it is awful.
Some examples:
- Boo hoo, Game X is too easy. It should be impossible for me to win except via dumb luck!
- Boo hoo, Game X is too hard. Because I’m not having any dumb luck right now!
- Boo hoo, Game X is too hard ON HARD MODE. Because I can’t play it on an easier mode since that would make my dick feel smaller.
- Boo hoo, Game X has some characters in it who are gay, and if I make the wrong dialogue choice I might end up as one, OH NOES.
- Boo hoo, Game X’s plot didn’t end the way I thought it should have. Clearly this merits threatening the developers instead of MOVING THE FUCK ON WITH LIFE.
- Boo hoo, Game X’s character design system won’t let me make a wizard with a sword. Never mind that that combination will only result in my getting my ass kicked. And never mind that I am deluding myself re: how original I am for… ripping off Gandalf.
- Boo hoo, Game X is too short. BTW I am playing the beta.
- Boo hoo, Game X has terrible controls, but I’m still going to give it a 9/10 in my review and then wonder why subsequent games that get made also have terrible controls.
- Boo hoo, Game X is too hard at the end. Game X is also a role play game. So basically what I am saying is that I deserve access to everything in the game without having to level-grind, because I’m an entitled little shit.
- Boo hoo, how dare the developers of Game X not implement my ideas, since I am clearly the most important person who plays the game and ME ME ME ME ME.
Based on all of the above - which I have pieced together from real rants I have heard in the last few weeks, mostly re: Diablo 3 - I think both my brother and Z are just as happy if gaming forums all die. :P
Darthulhu
As portrayed by the recently deceased Bob Anderson, may his soul rest uneasily until it rises again with the awakening of the Lord of Chaos.
(Source: aplaceformyass)
Outside of Prague, in the Czech Republic, is a small Roman Catholic Church that looks normal on the outside but holds 40,000 to 70,000 skeletons on the inside. Officially called the Sedlec Ossuary, it is often just referred to as Bone Church. Around 1400, thousands of skeletons were dug up so that the church could be built in the middle of the cemetery. The lower chapel was to be an ossuary for the mass graves unearthed during construction. Around 1870, a wood carver was commissioned to make order from all the bones. The dead were arranged in macabre art to form four bell towers, a huge bone chandelier that contains at least one of every bone in the human body, garlands of skulls draping the vault, bones around the altar, a large Schwarzenberg coat-of-arms, the signature of the artist Rint, and many more bizarre artworks. The chapel, and underneath the church and cemetery, are all decorated with bones. People who died in war or a gruesome death which marred the bones were not used too much for decoration. Instead, those skeletal remains are locked away behind gates or form bone tunnels.
I’ve been here! It was METAL AS SHIT.
Traditional evocation circle, triangle and tools, by Frater Yeshua, craft from France…
By the Yeti’s Beard! This is beautiful.
It would be awesome to have a room like this. :D
(Source: blessedonebe)
Pictures, experiments, recipes & other things too long for twitter.
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